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From The Socialist newspaper, 19 January 2022
Bus driver Tracey Scholes reinstated at Go North West
Unite member Tracey has been reinstated. Photo: Dave Beale (Click to enlarge)
Dave Beale, Lancashire Socialist Party
Bus driver Tracey Scholes has been reinstated at Go North West. The campaign won after supporters of Unite member Tracey were out in full force on 11 January to demand her reinstatement against the blind intransigence of management. Thousands also signed the petition calling for Tracey's reinstatement, and over a thousand people wrote to the CEO of parent company Go Ahead.
Tracey faced dismissal from her job after the bus company repositioned its wing mirrors resulting in five-foot tall Tracey being physically unable to operate some buses. Following an appeal, Tracey still faced dismissal from her job unless she accepted losing five hours in pay a week. She carried on fighting. Unite pledged to launch an unrelenting campaign to support Tracey in the event that Go Ahead refused to reinstate her.
Sharon Graham said: "Tracey Scholes was the first woman bus driver at the Manchester depot. Her appointment broke the mould for women in the bus industry. She has given 34 years of unblemished service."
Whether the attack on Tracey was a product of arrogant local management or a result of wider and deliberate management provocation, it sits in the context of an ongoing struggle between aggressive and anti-union bus employers and Unite's growing militancy and ability to win disputes in the bus sector, and more generally.
This comes at the same depot where there was 85 days of strike action last year.
Sharon Graham's leadership, and Unite's newly formed combine in the bus sector, open up new and substantial possibilities for winning cases like this, but also for pushing back the major employers in the sector as part of a coordinated national Unite strategy on pay, conditions and jobs. However, not until the reregulation and nationalisation of the bus sector is achieved will there be a service with a real guarantee to protect workers' rights and serve the community.
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In The Socialist 19 January 2022:
What we think
News
No trust in Tories to keep us safe
Tories hand cash to private health profiteers
Tory vaccine sacking threat set to deepen NHS staffing crisis
Employers use vaccine excuse to attack sick pay
International news
Murder of Ashling Murphy sends shocks waves across Ireland and beyond
Northern Ireland: Workers fight threatened closure of women's hostel
US: Independent Socialist Group launches new paper
Eyewitness account of workers' uprising in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Public services
Mutual aid, the welfare state and the fight for a new mass workers' party
Marxist classics
Why are things the way they are?
Rob Windsor
Rob Windsor - remembering a tireless fighter for socialism
Theatre
Workplace news
Sheffield Just Eat couriers speak about strike
S Yorks Stagecoach strike results in "huge pay win"
Scunthorpe scaffs resume indefinite strike action
Bus driver Tracey Scholes reinstated at Go North West
Royal Mail: Unofficial walkouts precede bigger battle to come on pay and workload
Newham college strike solid against bully privatisers
Somers Forge workers continue pay strike
Campaigns
NUS walkout: Organise to fight for free education on 2 March
Demonstrating against the Tory anti-protest bill
Waltham Forest: Campaign unites families facing eviction
Newham council rejects using 0.03% of reserves to fund arts
Birmingham: Cuts consultations replaced by computer game
Southampton uni ignores staff and students in exam farce
Oliver Campbell - 31 years fighting for justice
Bournemouth - angry people not represented by capitalist parties
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