More than 900 NZ Bus drivers in Auckland are expected to attend a strike today organised by the First Union.
Calls from the union for a 2.95% boost in pay and better rostering hours are at the heart of the dispute.
Radio New Zealand News reports that as a result of this, all bus services for Metrolink, Go West, Waka Pacific and North Star will not run from 11 am to 3 pm.
Link bus services would not be affected, and another bus, train and ferry services would run as usual.
The First Union told Radio New Zealand News it had encouraged all of its members to attend a scheduled stop-work meeting after attempts by NZ Bus to stop drivers from heading along.
It says what began as a routine meeting to talk about collective bargaining was now a strike.
Union organiser Rudd Hughes says all union members were being called to attend, even if they were scheduled to work.
“The reason we’ve run this strike is because we got threatened with disciplinary action for people turning up to a stop-work meeting, which is a statutory right, by NZ Bus management,” says Hughes.
“We took the strike action, and we’re wanting all our members to turn up to that.”
Union drivers were meant to cover some of the shifts but had backed out after disagreements with NZ Bus, says Hughes.
“We tried to strike some arrangement with NZ Bus, but they wanted far too many people,” he says.
NZ Bus chief operating officer Tonia Haskell told Radio New Zealand News that no drivers were threatened.
“The original proposal was to try and get enough drivers to cover our normal services, and we did try to find a time with the Union where there would be the least disruption,” says Haskell.
“However, we weren’t able to find enough to do that.”
Haskell says she hopes the company and union could reach an agreement.
“We are in the early stages of bargaining. There is a lot of water to go under the bridge, and no doubt we’ll come to an arrangement that suits both parties,” she says.
The First Union said it was too early to say whether more action will take place, but the option was on the table.
Both sides will return to negotiations at the end of January.
