Bus drivers at Stagecoach in Manchester have suspended their strike after receiving an improved offer.  They were set to follow previous strikes with a walkout alongside First Manchester drivers for nine days, including this bank holiday weekend.

Stagecoach bosses hauled scab drivers in to undermine the strike.

It was a mistake by the Unite union to call off the strikes before an offer had been agreed by strikers, and to leave the First Manchester drivers to strike alone.

First Manchester strikes were set to continue from Friday of this week until Monday of next week, and 4 to 8 September.

Some 300 bus drivers at Stagecoach in Warwickshire are set to take all-out action from Tuesday 5 September over pay.  The Unite members rejected a 7.8 percent pay offer for a year followed by a 4.5 percent offer and £100 one-off payment in the second.

The drivers from Nuneaton, Leamington and Stratford-upon-Avon are paid just £14 an hour.

Bus drivers at Go Ahead/Metrobus in the Brighton & Hove and Crawley areas are voting on whether to strike over pay. The 1,000 Unite members include bus ­drivers, cleaners, engineers and others.

They rejected 7 ­percent backdated to early July, which would’ve been increased to 10 percent in August. The workers want higher pay, more sick pay, as and an increase in holidays.

Those who have been at the company for less than six years get just 20 days of holiday. The Brighton and Hove bus company made profits of £11 million with parent company Go-Ahead taking £85 million.

The ballot closes on 12 September.

Meanwhile, 1,300 Go North East bus drivers and engineers are voting for strikes after rejecting a below-inflation pay offer and cuts to terms and conditions. And admin staff have had no offer from the company at all.

Workers in depots at Consett, Gateshead, Hexham, Percy Main, Sunderland and Washington are voting until 12 September.

Scottish strikes coming in schools and nurseries

GMB Scotland members in schools and early years are set to strike for two days next month. They are the latest group to prepare for action over pay.

The union, which represents more than 21,000 workers across Scotland’s 32 councils, has called for strikes in ten local authorities on 13 and 14 September.

Those affected are Aberdeen, Clackmannanshire, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Glasgow, Orkney, Renfrewshire and South Ayrshire.

Councils, grouped together in the Cosla employers’ body, have offered  an uplift of 5.5 percent which unions say is, for the lowest paid, £700 less this year than the deal in England and Wales.

Unison, the biggest council union, said its 30,000 members working in primaries and secondary schools are also expected to back strikes in a ballot that was set to close this week.

Lilian Macer, the Scottish Unison secretary, said that “sustained industrial action” hitting schools could last for weeks.  Macer called on the Scottish government and Cosla to negotiate with her union.

Workers involved in any action would be janitors, cleaners, caterers, classroom assistants and administrative staff.

Unite union members in education and early years services across ten councils have also voted for industrial action. The union is expected to announce strike dates soon. All the unions should strike together.

Unite union strikes in councils

Nearly 3,000 workers at 16 councils across England and Wales in the Unite union are set for strikes over pay next week.

They have rejected a a pay offer of just £1,925 a year—an increase of between 4 percent and 9 percent depending on individual grades.

Workers are due to walk out on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 August in Bath and North East Somerset, Cardiff, Chesterfield, Cornwall, Coventry, Cumberland, Cynon Valley, Darlington, Derby and North Tyneside, Gwynedd, Ispwich, Plymouth, Sefton, Warrington, Wigan and Wrexham.

Other unions have accepted the deal.

The strikes will raise the national deal but also call for extra payments from local councils.