UNITE the Union has confirmed that it is to launch a formal consultation for a strike by its members at Lothian Buses, which will target the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe.
The union yesterday confirmed that its membership at the bus service will be balloted for industrial action following overwhelming support in a consultative ballot.
In a three-week long ballot, 94% of Unite members indicated support to take industrial action.
The dispute is over the withdrawal of facilities for union officials and alleged bullying of staff.
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Unite regional industrial officer, Lyn Turner, said following the consultative ballot: “Unite has repeatedly warned that unless this catalogue of issues were addressed then there would be overwhelming support to move towards an industrial action ballot.”
She added to that yesterday: “Unite has tried repeatedly to engage Lothian Buses management to address these important issues. Lothian Buses have an opportunity to resolve this before the end of the ballot which, we are confident, will show overwhelmingly support for strike action.
“If they do not, then the public of Edinburgh and its politicians will have to ask serious questions as to why Lothian Buses seem hell-bent on engineering industrial action during the month of August when the Fringe and International Festival is on. This will only bring widespread disruption to the city, but in those circumstances there will be only one party to blame.”
A Lothian Buses spokeswoman said: “We are hugely frustrated that the union leadership would ask its hard-working members to go on strike at a time when visitors from across the world are descending upon Edinburgh.
“We remain very willing to engage with the union to prevent disruption to the residents of Edinburgh, tourists and visitors to our capital and the subsequent loss of revenue and wages to the business and drivers respectively.”
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