London bus drivers to strike in run-up to Christmas

Bus drivers based in parts of south and west London will stage 10 days of strike action in the run-up to Christmas, it has been announced.

Unite union said almost 1,000 of its members based with Abellio will walk out due to a dispute over pay.

Areas which would be affected by include Battersea, Beddington, Hayes, Southall, Twickenham and Walworth.

Transport for London (TfL) urged Unison and Abellio to work together to avoid disruption for Londoners.

The workers will strike on 22, 25, and 26 November, and on 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17 December.

Unite said it had invited Abellio to pay talks in September but had no response, and accused the company of paying among the lowest rates for bus drivers in London, causing a severe "retention crisis".

It also claimed the company was only managing to maintain its schedules due to a heavy reliance on overtime, making its operations unsustainable.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Abellio is a vastly wealthy multinational company that could and should be paying its workers a fair pay increase.

"With workers struggling to cope with rampant inflation, Abellio's failure to even enter into meaningful pay talks is cold-hearted and callous."

It comes as much of the capital came to a grinding halt during the sixth Tube strike of the year, leading to the closure of the most Underground lines.

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