Brian Rudman: Bus company should be ashamed of conditions

Where are our civic leaders when we need them? For weeks they've been positively drooling about the economic benefits of the upcoming Lions tour. Be nice to the Poms, they implore us, so they won't notice Auckland shopkeepers and hoteliers sucking their pockets dry.

But now, in the midst of a real economic crisis - a week-long bus strike - they've gone all quiet. Not that I'm suggesting Mayor Dick Hubbard and his mayoral colleagues assume some mediating role. But why aren't they offering some constructive help to the 30,000 stranded bus-users struggling to work to keep Auckland's economy ticking over?

Why aren't the Domain playing fields being offered for temporary parking? Ditto Victoria Park - which I walked across yesterday on my trek into town and which seemed firm enough underfoot for such emergency use.

And with a bit of sweet talking, the port company - soon to return to full public ownership - might even be persuaded to throw open Queen's Wharf for the same purpose.

In times past in similar crises, civic leaders have also encouraged motorists to pick people up at bus stops. Why not now? Why not encourage taxis to do the same?

I was amazed walking past the Heritage Hotel yesterday morning to count 11 taxis queueing for non-existent customers while the drivers stood idly around - no doubt talking of the lack of patronage. Why haven't they been authorised to patrol the bus routes, offering rides for a set price?

Why aren't full cars being allowed to use the bus lanes for the duration?

These seem obvious enough amelioration measures to me. Then again, I don't have a ratepayer-provided carpark to make the bus strike go away like they do.

As for the strike itself, I wish the drivers every success. Like just about every other Aucklander, it seems, I'm ashamed at the wages and conditions we, as a community, pay our vital workers. As one colleague pointed out, his daughter gets a better hourly rate working as a casual in a coffee bar.

It's not just the wages - the highest hourly rate is about $11 an hour after taxes - that are demeaning, it's the miserable conditions that go with it, particularly the infamous split shift, where drivers can be spelled on no pay for up to six hours between rush hours, with only a derisory $3.63 broken-shift allowance to show for it.

There are no morning or afternoon breaks and paid meal breaks have been eliminated from contracts. Many's the time I've seen a bus pull up alongside the public toilet at Victoria Park and the driver duck in for a quick comfort stop. How demeaning. There is no extra pay for weekend work.

All heart, Stagecoach allows drivers to catch a bus for free to work if there is one. But those on the 4.45am starting shift, or signing off at 1.30am on the closing shift, are not so lucky. If they were flight attendants they'd get taxi chits, but we expect the bus drivers who keep the region's roads flowing to provide their own transport to work.

Stagecoach is the villain of the present crisis, but its smaller rivals pay no better.

Drivers with long memories hanker for the days of public ownership, when at least the pressures were not so great. The pressure, for example, of trying to maintain timetables that are unachievable in today's traffic. The union points to an annual driver turnover of 31 per cent as a sign of the dissatisfaction within the workforce.

No wonder Stagecoach is forced overseas to scour for recruits.

Getting back to our civic leaders: though a private company, Stagecoach is dependent on around $35 million a year of Auckland Regional Council subsidies to survive. Over the last three years it's made a $38 million profit. This surely gives the council a right to express the community's disquiet over the present impasse.

The vast majority of Aucklanders support the drivers' modest demand for a $16 hourly rate. Our civic leaders should challenge Stagecoach to open its books and show why it can't pay up. If they refuse, perhaps it's time to raise the prospect of restoring the buses to public ownership. I suspect that would rapidly concentrate the Stagecoach directors' minds.