Kommunal’s bus drivers on strike!

“Most public transport employees love their job; they are engaged in work that is important to the community and they feel very proud about what they do. But the employer needs to give them better conditions and, since we cannot see that they are taking our demands seriously, we are now having to give notice of industrial action,” says Lenita Granlund, Kommunal’s National Negotiations Secretary.

A 13-hour working day; scheduling fine-tuned down to seconds and hundredths with divided workdays; 15 years at the same job and still employed on a probationary basis; re-applying for your own job when the contractor changes.... That is what the reality looks like for many of those employed in the public transport sector in Sweden. The employer refuses to meet Kommunal’s demands for improved conditions and that is why the public transport employees are now on strike.

Translation of poster text: It is not good enough that bus-drivers have to work under conditions that fly in the face of the human factor, or be forced to re-apply for their jobs in the wake of each procurement.  We therefore demand an agreement that does not treat bus-drivers like machines. Since neither the politicians, who have the power to exert influence, nor the bus employers accept their responsibility, the negotiations regarding a new collective agreement for the bus-drivers have broken down, with strike action as a result. We realise that this can involve problems for you. But we are still going ahead. In order that your drivers shall have the right to be just as much human beings as you are.

See photos on Kommunal's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.675675152449307.10