Bus Dispute Parties Take A Deep Breath

Parties in the bus dispute are taking some breathing space to work out where to go from now in the six-month long bus dispute.

It appears no-one has the answer to that now that mediation has been exhausted and the bus drivers have angrily rejected the proposed solution.

Combined bus unions spokesman Karl Andersen says the unions will have to get back into negotiations with the company at “some stage” but will first spend some time considering the best course to take.

NZBus’ general operations manager also said his company “will now take some time to consider our position and to understand the facts over the next few days.  We will be making no further comment at this time.” It’s high stakes time. The lockout and resulting bus disruption earnt the company few favours and ARTA even threatened to take a close look at the bus service contract with the company in case they had breached it.

This time it’s the actual union members who have decided not to end the dispute by agreeing to the proposal – something the union bosses point out is their democratic right. But the worrying aspect of that vote yesterday was the degree of anger by many of the drivers, some of whom walked out of the meeting. How long can that anger be contained?

The last thing we want is some wildcat walkout on the job by drivers but it’s hard to see what measured approach either party can take right now when they thought they had finally made the progress they needed in resolving the matter..