Duncan Meerding, Hobart
On February 14, Metro Tasmania's 340 bus drivers voted 181 to 107 in favour of taking state-wide strike action from 6.30pm that day until midnight on February 16, to express their dissatisfaction with management's pay offer.
The bus drivers' initial demand was a pay increase of 33%, implemented over three years. Metro Tasmania made a counter-offer of 12% implemented over three years. Through negotiations in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), a new offer was put to the bus drivers — a 6% pay rise for the first year, followed by 4% each year for two years.
Jody Nichols, a member of the negotiating team for the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), told Green Left Weekly: "We're going for a decent wage, we're going for a wage that we can live on, that our families can get by on, and to keep our conditions at the standard that they are. We want a living wage.
"Originally, Metro Tasmania wanted trade-offs. Trade-offs were taken off in the final offer. But even then we brought it back to the members. The members voted on it, and they didn't want it. They threw it out. Over the course of six years we have gotten a pay rise of about 17%, [while] other government departments have gotten 30%-40%.
"We found out that the government had put aside a 4% wage rise each year, but that was never passed onto the drivers."
The February 17 Hobart Mercury reported that the AIRC had terminated the bargaining period between Metro Tasmania and the drivers' union. The commission also banned drivers from taking strike action before October.
RTBU state secretary Sandro Amicosante said drivers would not strike again before October and that he was positive an agreement could be made.
From Green Left Weekly, February 22, 2006.
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