“Really they should just be honouring the full back pay”
17:13, 19 Sep 2025Updated 17:14, 19 Sep 2025
Bristol’s first major bus strike for a generation ends tonight, but the two sides seem further apart than ever, and a second longer strike is looming, after a day of noisy protest in the heart of the city today.
Scores of striking bus drivers gathered in The Centre with whistles, horns, bells and some in fancy dress, as they turned their depot gate picket lines into a protest by the Cascade Steps near the Hippodrome all day on Friday.
Only around 30 per cent of CityLines buses were running again today, Friday, September 19, after a fourth day of walk-outs in a dispute over backdating an agreed pay rise in full. Pressure on First Bus bosses grew after the drivers’ union Unite said its members had agreed a second strike – this time one that would last for a fortnight – and local political leaders urged the bus company to honour the demand to backdate the pay rise.
Cllr Tom Renhard (Lab, Horfield ) is the Labour group leader at City Hall, and came down to The Centre to support the striking bus drivers. “We’re concerned about the dispute,” he said. “The dispute covers back pay issues, and a lot of drivers have worked in good faith in expecting that back pay in full.
“It’s £300,000 in total, and when First Bus are sitting on profits of £104 million, it’s a drop in the ocean, but actually makes a huge difference for those individual drivers,” he added.
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With bus services in Bristol run by private companies and not as franchised council-run routes, there is little the city council or West of England metro mayor Helen Godwin can do to solve the internal industrial dispute involving a private company.
Cllr Renhard said First should act. “The only thing we can do is put a bit of pressure on First to solve the dispute, and really they should just be honouring the full back pay from our perspective,” he said.
“We’ll be writing to Doug Claringbold as the Labour Group to express our concern and encourage them to get back round the table and get the dispute settled,” he added.
After the announcement on Thursday of a second strike starting on October 1, First Bus managing director Doug Claringbold blamed the drivers for the strike.
Striking First Bus drivers rally in Bristol city centre Friday 19 September 2025 on the fourth day of industrial action. (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
“We, like our customers, are deeply frustrated that the union has announced an additional two weeks of strikes in Bristol from the start of October. These are unnecessary and, most importantly, hugely disruptive to our customers, and it is within the hands of the union to stop this action,” he added.
There has been a further dispute about the number of drivers who have been breaking the strike, and the tactics employed by First to encourage crossing the picket lines. First are offering to pay drivers for their breaks – something that doesn’t normally happen – and a £50 per day bonus for breaking the strike at the Lawrence Hill and Hengrove depots.
READ MORE: Bristol Bus Strike – full list of the services scrapped or reducedREAD MORE: Bristol Bus Strike – Day 4 updates as drivers fill The Centre
After saying the strike was ‘hugely disruptive’, Mr Claringbold hailed those who had returned to work. “Within 24 hours of the union’s initial strikes this week we saw striking colleagues voting with their feet when some of them swapped the picket line for depots as they returned to work, clearly demonstrating that they want to get back to serving customers and are keen for this situation to be resolved,” he said.
“We have always maintained an open dialogue with the union and while they continue to reject our full and final offer, which has been accepted by other areas in our region, we still hope to find a solution to encourage the union to call off their strikes,” he added.
Doug Claringbold, Managing Director for First West of England(Image: Western Daily Press)
First Bus has offered drivers a pay rise from the present basic rate of £16 an hour to £17, as this year’s pay rise. But drivers say it should be backdated to when the pay rise is supposed to come into force – April 1. First said it doesn’t want to do that, and offered the drivers a stepped pay rise so they are paid £16.50 an hour backdated from April, and £17 an hour from now.
“This deal was meant to be settled in April,” explained Kirsty Rogers, a bus driver an Unite rep. “Every year they drag their heels, drag it on, and all we want is the £17 an hour, backpaid to April. But they are trying to make it that we’ll only get £16.50. But we just want the £17 an hour back paid to April and that will settle it.
“The reason for going on strike is for them to appreciate us and that they need to value us. Without us, they wouldn’t have jobs above us. We are the bread and butter of the company, and we just want to be valued and appreciated really. We feel that we’re worth £17 an hour and the back pay that we are owed,” she added.
The strike has seen a very limited service on First’s CityLines routes – the regular within-Bristol numbered bus routes. Around 16 of those routes were scrapped altogether on Tuesday, with a service of roughly every half an hour or every hour on the remaining 18, and no service after 7pm, apart from two routes.
Bus services out of the Marlborough Street bus station depot have operated as normal because the drivers there accepted First ‘full and final offer’ last week. That has meant Metrobus services have run, along with the commuter routes from South Gloucestershire and Somerset.
Striking First Bus drivers rally in Bristol city centre Friday 19 September 2025 on the fourth day of industrial action. (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Drivers will go back to work on Saturday and continue as normal on Monday, but if a resolution is not found, then a two-week strike is scheduled to begin on October 1.
“That is going to be a bit tough, and I do understand if drivers do need to go back to work,” said Kirsty Rogers. “But I feel that they’ve come out this week and they’ve shown a lot of strength the first week they’ve been with us.
“First say they’ve got no money to pay us, but they’re giving us, on top of normal shift, they’re paying us breaks, which they don’t normally pay, and also £50 per day incentive to break the strike.
“All we can say to passengers really, is don’t want this, and we do feel for you if you need to get around, and we are sorry that we’re not there to pick you up. But this can be sorted by the bus company, unfortunately. We might be all out here and not driving the buses, but it’s no fault of our own, we’re just trying to make things better for the future,” she added.