For 29 days over the summer, thousands of people across Merseyside were unable to get a bus.
Now in certain parts of this region, this meant the only viable means of public transport was unavailable for close to an entire month. Was this frustrating? Sure. Did most people take issue with it? No.
That's because many were fully supportive of the strike action being carried out by Arriva bus drivers across Merseyside, even if it left them effectively cut off. The drivers were determined and unflappable in their campaign for a fair pay rise and the support of the people of this region played a big part in cementing that resolve.
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That resolve was tested with pay offer after pay offer, but the drivers knew what they deserved and would not budge until the inflation-matching 11.1% increase they had demanded was eventually offered and accepted.
In a letter to the ECHO, those same victorious drivers spoke of the vital support from local people and how they hoped their victory would be a blueprint for others involved in industrial disputes.
The drivers said: "Some thought that the public support would waiver. Some thought that the longer the dispute went on, the more people would give second-thoughts to coming into work.. Liverpool understands solidarity and struggle better than the most. Even as buses rolled out for the first time since the dispute, passengers shook our hands, applauded us for taking a stand and even cars that passed us on the road were beeping in admiration."
Speaking about the 11.1% pay deal achieved, the drivers added: "The lasting legacy of this strike is the solidarity we have built amongst our colleagues and with the wider community. Nobody – neither a bus driver or a care worker – should be struggling by and having to experience the gruelling bureaucracy of seeking help and support through Universal Credit whilst working full time, or worse, using a food bank."
Of course each industrial dispute is different, but the manner of the Arriva driver's victory will not have gone unnoticed to those who would soon be heading out to the pickets in their own battles in other parts of the region.
September saw the start of two other high-profile local disputes, with workers striking at both the Port of Liverpool and the Jacob's cracker and biscuit factory in Aintree.
At Jacob's, more than 750 workers took part in walk-outs, which later became an all-out strike. Large, noisy pickets were formed each day outside the factory and just like with the Arriva drivers, the support from the passing public was constant. In November a 6.5% pay rise with a one-off payment of £500 this year was offered, followed by an additional 3% increase and a £250 payment next year. the deal was accepted and the employees returned to work.
For two months between September and November the Port of Liverpool was a sea of colour, noise and solidarity as 600 dock workers took to the picket line with a sense of frustration and fortitude, their efforts undoubtedly inspired by those who had gone before them in the difficult days of the 1990s.
With that sense of history behind them, it was clear the dockers were never going to back down and in November workers at the Peel Ports-owned Port won pay increases of between 14 and 18 per cent, more than double the initial offer that had prompted the action.
The latest strike action success in Merseyside came just before the turn of the year. Biffa bin workers had first walked out on strike in early December. Staff on the outsourced Wirral Council waste collection contract downed tools for a week in a fight for a fair pay increase.
With the initial action failing to lead to an offer the union members would accept, the action was set to be escalated during the crucial Christmas period. If it had gone ahead this would have meant commercial and household bins left unemptied and overflowing from December 28 to 31 with further strike days scheduled for January.
But following Christmas Day talks, brokered by Wirral Council leader Jan Williamson, it was announced that a deal had been accepted just hours before the latest walk-out was due to begin. Details later emerged of a whopping 15% pay increase, which will be backdated to April. Drivers of bin wagons on the contract will also see their hourly rates increase by £1.49 on top of the percentage increase and workers will see another rise in April 2023 of between 7 and 9% depending on inflation.
The news represented the latest overwhelming victory for striking workers in Merseyside and offered further inspiration to those involved in their own difficult and draining action. It will have surprised absolutely no one that the picket lines of nurses and paramedics seen this month in this region were the loudest, most defiant and most supported across the country.
This region has a proud and successful history of workers fighting for what they believe is fair and is showing time and time again that those battles can be won. In 2023 there will be many others looking to Merseyside for inspiration.
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