Pressure on as bus strike ends with no resolution

BRISTOL'S first major bus strike for a generation has ended, but the two sides seem further apart than ever, and a second longer strike is looming, after a day of noisy protest in the heart of the city on Friday.

- TRISTAN CORK

Scores of striking bus drivers gathered in The Centre with whistles, horns, bells and some in fancy dress, as they turned their depot gate picket lines into a protest by the Cascade Steps near the Hippodrome.

Only around 30 per cent of City-Lines buses were running again on Friday, after a fourth day of walkouts in a dispute over backdating an agreed pay rise in full.

Pressure on First Bus bosses grew after the drivers' union Unite said its members had agreed a second strike - this time one that would last for a fortnight - and local political leaders urged the bus company to honour the demand to backdate the pay rise.

Cllr Tom Renhard (Lab, Horfield) is the Labour group leader at City Hall, and came down to The Centre to support the striking bus drivers.

"We're concerned about the dispute," he said.

"The dispute covers back pay issues, and a lot of drivers have worked in good faith in expecting that back pay in full. It's £300,000 in total, and when First Bus are sitting on profits of £104 million, it's a drop in the ocean, but actually makes a huge difference for those individual drivers," he added.