Strike! (Again...)

Another week, another bus strike...

But this time it's different because the people going on strike are the workers at TfGM, who balloted for strike action a couple of weeks back as the Stagecoach/First/Metroline strikes were happening.

In their Stop The Drop campaign, they outline their reasons for going on strike. These centre around real time losses in pay due to weak pay rises, no pay rises, real time cuts due to inflation. 

So far, so familiar.

In contrast to the strikes by First, Stagecoach and Metroline, the strikes by TfGM do not directly impact buses as such, rather they impact interchanges and bus stations. To put it in basic terms:

If you wanted to buy a monthly Bee Network ticket at Stockport Interchange, now is not the week to be doing that.

As with all striking public sector workers who have seen their pay decimated since the financial crash of 2008, I definitely sympathise with them and I hope that they get their demands met. In the meantime? Very relieved to be the owner of annual bus pass that doesn't expire until January...