A UNION has announced plans for a two-week strike by bus drivers.
More than 600 members of Unite held a four-day strike in September after talks on a pay deal with operator First West of England broke down.
Now they say they will strike for an entire fortnight, from October 1 to 14, and are warning the action will bring Bristol “to a standstill”.
The drivers work on services including those on routes to Emerson Green, Lyde Green and Mangotsfield.
During September’s strike First ran reduced 48x and 49x services, with the 48x running hourly and the 49x half-hourly between 7am and 7pm.
Some other services did not run at all.
The full metrobus network remained in operation.
A spokesperson for the operator could not give details of its plans for the October strikes when contacted by the Voice.
The company is urging passengers to check its website tinyurl.com/4te5cpcj ahead of the strike days.
Announcing the new strikes, Unite said: “Given the number of drivers involved and the length of the second wave of strikes, this will be extremely disruptive with many cancellations and delays to services expected.”
Unite says it has offered to meet First for further negotiations but says the firm has refused to negotiate or accept support from the conciliation service Acas.
The union says workers at City Line have historically been poorly paid and believe the current offer “fails to address the rising cost of living and the difficult job they do, which often has long hours and puts them at risk of assault from the general public”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “First Bus is a very profitable firm, but its hard working workers are struggling to pay the bills – the situation is deplorable and it is little wonder they have voted to take further industrial action.
“This dispute has been entirely the fault of the employer who has put profits over people throughout. We will support the affected members every step of the way throughout this dispute.”
First West of England managing director Doug Claringbold said he was “deeply frustrated” at the new strikes.
He said: “These are unnecessary and, most importantly, hugely disruptive to our customers, and it is within the hands of the union to stop this action.
“Within 24 hours of the union’s initial strikes we saw striking colleagues voting with their feet when some of them swapped the picket line for depots as they returned to work, clearly demonstrating that they want to get back to serving customers and are keen for this situation to be resolved.
“We have always maintained an open dialogue with the union and while they continue to reject our full and final offer, which has been accepted by other areas in our region, we still hope to find a solution to encourage the union to call off their strikes.”
Mr Claringbold said about 60% of services had run during the September strikes, but added: “Announcing even more strikes is severely disrupting the public’s travel plans and damaging the reputation of bus travel in Bristol.”
Speaking after the first strikes were announced, First West of England managing director Doug Claringbold said he hoped “to find a solution with the trade union which encourages them to call off these disruptive strikes”.