An impressive dispute

It is now seven or eight weeks of action every Monday at the First Bus garages in Bury, Bolton and Wigan, that there have been impressively large pickets. Around thirty or more on the Monday just gone. And hardly a strike breaker despite management's efforts, including an injunction limiting the numbers of pickets, forbidding hte use of the word scab, wrting to each striker individiually at their home and putting adverts in the local press.

The dispute is over the company pay freeze which looks preposterous alongside the £134 million profits they have just declared. The strike is spreading with several thousand drivers now involved, though the Yorkshire drivers are currently considering a less than impressive offer of a £100 one-off payment before deciding whether to take action. What is clear is that with decent leadership the rank and file will fight.