Go North East

[Snex]

What does this mean for GNE?

Washington depot has been hit and miss the last few years

If you're one of the engineers who was expected to go with the vehicles from Chester Le Street to maintain them at Washington.

If you're passing the Volvo depot every day on the way then it might become very attractive since you feel unvalued by GNE.

I'm sure you'll be very attractive to Volvo aswell if you have experience especially working on Volvo vehicles in the past which GNE have/had.

 

[Megafuss]

It appears engineering woes have moved from Consett to Washington, where it was already bubbling in the background.

An hour gap on the X1 yesterday, only plugged with a Euro 5 Citaro.

Multiple 29, X1 and 4 services binned today. Not good enough to get to this state.

 

[DanNCL]

It appears engineering woes have moved from Consett to Washington, where it was already bubbling in the background.

An hour gap on the X1 yesterday, only plugged with a Euro 5 Citaro.

Multiple 29, X1 and 4 services binned today. Not good enough to get to this state.

In addition there’s been a Euro 5 Citaro on the 28/29 today as well as more cancellations on the 34, almost a daily occurrence now.

At least they’re now paying the fee for the Euro 5 Citaros to cross the Tyne.

 

[HC1998]

An hour gap on the X1 yesterday, only plugged with a Euro 5 Citaro.

This is more common than you think

 

[jkkne]

Strike action looming

What a mess

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2pr46d23jo

 

[Tetchytyke]

Strike action looming

What a mess

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2pr46d23jo

Interesting how they've wheeled out Nigel Featham this time.

Shame he's pretty much confirmed what Unite said: that these "briefings" are there to make sure the driver gets the blame if anything goes wrong.

You may as well stick a fork in them. They're done.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Interesting how they've wheeled out Nigel Featham this time.

Shame he's pretty much confirmed what Unite said: that these "briefings" are there to make sure the driver gets the blame if anything goes wrong.

You may as well stick a fork in them. They're done.

For balance - here's another take.

Why do any businesses undertake training and then ask staff to confirm that they have received it?

Quite simply, if someone is negligent then, guess what, they might be inclined to suggest that they hadn't been informed even if they had been. Also, if there is an incident, then how does the company prove that they haven't been negligent and that they have adequately trained their staff?

 

[Tetchytyke]

Why do any businesses undertake training and then ask staff to confirm that they have received it?

Quite simply, if someone is negligent then, guess what, they might be inclined to suggest that they hadn't been informed even if they had been.

I completely agree. Nothing unusual about signing for attendance at a training course.

But the union don’t start threatening strike action over something that is supposedly routine and above board unless that thing is not, in fact, routine and above board.

The timing is interesting too, coming not long after someone at GNE started whistleblowing to the BBC about deficient maintenance.

Yet again with GNE, the reaction is more telling than anything else.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I completely agree. Nothing unusual about signing for attendance at a training course.

But the union don’t start threatening strike action over something that is supposedly routine and above board unless that thing is not, in fact, routine and above board.

The timing is interesting too, coming not long after someone at GNE started whistleblowing to the BBC about deficient maintenance.

Yet again with GNE, the reaction is more telling than anything else.

There's clearly a very poor relationship between Unite (and its members) and Go North East. That much is true. The truth of this is probably not as black and white as the union are suggesting BUT that it's happening is symptomatic of very poor IR issues that are continuing even after the bitterness of the dispute.

It probably needs a grounded old lag of a manager to come in locally and draw the poison from the relationship, as well as getting the day to day operations sorted.

 

[jkkne]

Yes when you look at how EY have handled the public and internal comms so much better than their sister company you wonder why?

Then you look at the childish comms during the last strike, the childish marketing and it’s clearly a place where no highly rated comms or marketing person would dream of going to.

I mean this line alone…

Recently, we introduced safety briefings for drivers to reinforce best practices, for example to ensure that double deck buses are not driven on routes with low bridges in case it leads to bridge strikes"

 

[Snex]

There's clearly a very poor relationship between Unite (and its members) and Go North East. That much is true. The truth of this is probably not as black and white as the union are suggesting BUT that it's happening is symptomatic of very poor IR issues that are continuing even after the bitterness of the dispute.

It probably needs a grounded old lag of a manager to come in locally and draw the poison from the relationship, as well as getting the day to day operations sorted.

The issues are above local management imo and are coming from the top. The fleet is getting on badly and there isn't enough engineers to fix them with the added boot that the wage is below the going rate so no-one wants the jobs.

Whoever is in charge is going to struggle to deal with those issues as it's all stemming from lack of investment. When Arriva has bought more buses locally, in recent times, then you're doing something very poorly as that bar can't be any lower.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

It made Monday evening's regional TV news. Strike action looming over maintenance issues. Having had to sign for having attended the briefing drivers are saying that the laid down procedure is being ignored by GNE ie drivers report faults to control only to be told to carry on. Allegedly warning indicators are being taped over to prevent drivers reporting faults at all. A couple of drivers suspended for standing their ground too often. Surely a senior head or two will have to roll before there's any chance of improving IR.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The truth of this is probably not as black and white as the union are suggesting BUT that it's happening is symptomatic of very poor IR issues that are continuing even after the bitterness of the dispute.

It probably needs a grounded old lag of a manager to come in locally and draw the poison from the relationship, as well as getting the day to day operations sorted.

I can certainly see that the poison in the relationship will cloud judgements, with the poison leading the union to be a lot quicker in assuming that something is underhand or nefarious.

But actually, I have a sneaky feeling the union are right to perceive this as underhand or nefarious. It's clear from the union reaction that they didn't know these briefings were coming and it's clear from the union reaction that they weren't involved in the wording.

For Featham to then come out and say it's nothing to worry about, it's just to remind drivers not to drive their bus into a bridge, well. I honestly can't decide if that's bone-headed or him being deliberately incendiary.

Nigel Featham has presided over mass walk-outs at every single operator he's ever been involved in:
Warrington Buses in 2003,
Arriva Yorkshire in 2016,
Arriva North East in 2019,
Go North West in 2020, and
Go North East in 2023.

That's quite the track record.

Given all those mass walk-outs were characterised by Featham characterising his staff as being "greedy", I think it's fair to assume both the policy and the media comments were him being deliberately incendiary. It certainly fits in with the evidence from throughout his career.

 

[HC1998]

Any more strike news?