Stagecoach Liverpool bus strikes: Bus drivers to walk out this week as pay dispute rumbles on

Almost 500 Stagecoach bus drivers in Liverpool will walk out this week as an ongoing pay dispute rumbles on.

Drivers walked out on June 24 and 25 after a new pay offer ‘failed to meet members’ expectations and further strike action is set to go ahead this week. Unite the Union said the workers are ‘angry over the huge disparity between their pay and that of Arriva Liverpool drivers’ with a difference of around £3,000 per year.

Stagecoach drivers are scheduled to strike from July 5-8 and July 12-15 with the threat of an all-out continuous strike if ‘Stagecoach is not prepared to make a pay offer acceptable to members’. 

Discussing the industrial action, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “For too long Stagecoach has got away with paying its Liverpool drivers on the cheap. This shows a total lack of respect and appreciation for its workers, without whom there would be no bus service, and for the communities on Merseyside who rely on their buses.“

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A spokesperson for Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire said: "We deeply regret the industrial action is taking place and are open to resolving this dispute and are available to hold talks at any time.

"We genuinely want to settle the dispute but the overall cost of a pay rise needs to be affordable at the depot. We’ve informed Unite of a number of ways in which we could resolve the dispute, they involve movement by both parties, and we are willing to do to that."