London bus drivers will stage a one day strike on 22 June in a dispute over Olympic bonuses and have pledged to walk out during the Games if they do not receive a £500 payment.
The Unite trade union said it would disrupt the world's biggest sporting event unless its 21,000 bus members were paid in line with tube and rail workers who have secured one-off rewards.
The London-wide bus strike, the first since 1982, will start at 3am on Friday 22 June and end the following morning. The capital's bus network carries more than 6 million passengers on a weekday, compared with 3.5 million on the tube.
Peter Kavanagh, a Unite regional secretary, said the blame lay with bus operators and Transport for London, the authority controlled by the London mayor, Boris Johnson.
He added that the union would be willing to strike during the Games if necessary. "If the bus companies and TfL continue to do nothing Unite will call further strikes up to and during the Olympic Games."
Earlier this year Unite's general secretary, Len McCluskey, provoked cross-party condemnation when he said unions should consider industrial action during the Olympics.
London's 21 bus operators, however, are adamant that they cannot afford the £14m payment to bus workers because they are paid a set fee by TfL.
The mayor's transport authority is arguing in turn that the dispute is a matter for the operators.
TfL has accused Unite of "attempting to exploit the Games spirit and add a further multimillion-pound burden to the hard-pressed fare and taxpayers of London."
Unite believes its members have been short-changed following the agreement of one-off bonuses of £850 for tube staff, £600 for London Overground staff and £900 for Docklands Light Railway employees.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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