The London Bus Rank-and-File Committee and the Socialist Equality Party are calling for the reinstatement of London bus driver David O’Sullivan, sacked for upholding workers’ rights to health and safety during a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 60 bus workers in the capital.
The death rate among London bus drivers is three times the national average, with the families of those killed demanding answers.
In London, Berlin, Paris, New York, Sao Paulo and India, bus and transport workers are fighting back. O’Sullivan’s sacking is a test case for the rights of key workers everywhere. Join the campaign today!
O’Sullivan, 57, was sacked on February 3, after he sounded the alarm over the spread of COVID-19 infections at Cricklewood bus garage in north west London. The rate of fatalities among London bus drivers is three times the national average, with the families of those killed demanding answers.
Leaders from the Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 234 unilaterally overturned the will of transit workers to strike as their one-year contract expired last week.
The Labour Minister’s order is part of an escalating assault on workers’ rights, in which worker job action is being systematically criminalized so as to enable the ruling elite to intensify its class war agenda of increased worker exploitation at home and imperialist war abroad.
Social anger is growing among workers as mass job cuts and factory closures mount across the US and the world.
For the first time at BVG, the rank-and-file “Action Committee” is running a slate of candidates and calling for workers to break the dictatorial control exercised by the Verdi trade union and for independent rank-and-file committees to be set up in all depots and departments.
Management at Berlin’s BVG local transit company has decided to postpone the reintroduction of front boarding. Drivers must ensure front doors remain closed until they agree it is safe.
The massive “no” vote registered at Park Royal, Stamford Brook and Shepherds Bush speaks to a growing mood of opposition to Unite’s record of collusion.
The refusal of Unite to outline the deal and organise a ballot can only mean that what is being proposed is so toxic that Unite is working frantically on how to sell it to the Go North West drivers and to prevent an angry backlash.
“We are not cattle and will not be sacrificed to protect the profits of the corporations and banks who have made a financial killing during the pandemic,” states the resolution passed by the London Bus Drivers Rank-and-File Safety Committee.
