By George Binette
Industrial action looks set to continue from Tuesday morning 25th August at Arriva North (London) buses after Unite members rejected a management offer by a vote of 586 to 501. Nearly 1,500 drivers across eight garages and more than 40 routes in north and east London and Grays, Essex had already walked out for two days in a dispute sparked by increasingly unbearable working conditions amidst recent heatwaves. Arguably, the strike is among the first in Britain explicitly linked to the consequences of climate change.
One driver at Wood Green garage had documented a temperature of 44 Celsius in the cab of his bus, while a Unite officer at the Stamford Hill garage informed me during a picket line visit of credible reports of temperatures exceeding 50 degrees on some routes. Clearly, “air cooling” in cabs was woefully inadequate.
Drivers had reported breathlessness, dehydration and extreme fatigue during shifts that frequently last 10 hours, the statutory maximum, though Unite claims some drivers have worked 12-hour shifts. Bus workers are also increasingly fed up with the lack of adequate toilet facilities, with the possibility of a single loo break over a span of five hours.
In a sign of the leftward shift of sections of the Green Party, Hackney’s recently elected Green Mayor Zoë Garbett visited the Stamford Hill picket line on 18th August along with two new Green councillors. In a brief speech voicing solidarity with the strike, Garbett said: “For decades NHS and health professionals have talked about the impact that the climate crisis is going to have on people’s health. This is a workers’ justice issue.”
While London Mayor Sadiq Khan has expressed sympathy with the plight of bus drivers working through heatwaves and even backed their right to stop work in extreme heat, there has been no direct intervention in the dispute so far from Transport for London (TfL). Since privatisation in the 1980s, TfL has held ultimate responsibility for oversight of the outsourced contract with Arriva. Previously controlled by the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn for nearly 15 years, a Florida-based private equity firm, I Squared Capital, acquired Arriva in June 2024.
Unite officials had originally suspended the scheduled action after the first two days to consult on Arriva’s proposal to install air conditioning by next summer (2027). Following the ballot result, drivers were due to resume strike action with the morning shift on the 25th, continuing until Friday morning of the 28th. Unite has notified company management of another eight strike days, spread across September and October.
George Binette is the former Trade Union Liaison Officer for Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP and co-chair of Camden Trades Council.
Image: Hackney’s mayor addresses striking Arriva drivers and supporters at Stamford Hill garage. Credit: Amanda Bentham.
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