Wellington bus drivers are striking today for a new collective employment agreement after two years of failed negotiations. But from tomorrow, they'll be locked out indefinitely as Australian-owned "NZ" Bus trues to cut their pay and conditions. What's really shocking here is that the Greater Wellington Regional Council has offered to top up their contract to enable them to pass on a living wage to their workers, and they've simply refused, in favour of expensive union-busting instead. Which means they're basicly refusing to perform their contract, voluntarily. Hopefully GWRC will be applying some tough penalties here. Though given that they fined the company more than 17,000 times for non-performance in 2019, and they are still cancelling more than 200 services a week, it seems that the contractual fines are insufficient incentives to perform, and maybe GWRC should be looking at stripping it entirely.
Meanwhile, if you'd like to contribute to the strike fund, details are here.
