NZ Bus spins as 5pm deadline passes

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 3 comments
Categories: Media, workers' rights - Tags: , ,

The front page leads on Herald and Stuff report:

NZ Bus will lift its lockout notice and resume services on Thursday morning “as a gesture of good will”, if the unions stop strike action and agree to reach a settlement, the company says.

I do despair about our media sometimes. This is not a new offer. The whole reason the company gave for locking workers out in the first place was the work to rule notice. For the last six days they’ve been demanding drivers lift the work to rule notice before they consider lifting the lockout.

Now they’re still saying the same thing, they’ve just sent it to the media in press release format and labelled it “a gesture of goodwill” in the knowledge it will be picked up and published uncritically because newsrooms are so run down these days that there’s no institutional memory beyond two days ago.

Anyway, that’s no biggie, just something that annoyed me. What will be interesting is what happens now that ARTA’s 5pm deadline for NZ Bus to end the lockout has passed. Unless NZ Bus changes tack they may find themselves out of a contract.

3 comments on “NZ Bus spins as 5pm deadline passes ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    13 October 2009 at 9:18 pm

    I also heard this and had to check. I thought it was a big mistake on the part of the media because Infratil’s position had not changed one iota and it seems that this is correct.

    A very stupid person that I just spoke to thought that it was a development. It seems that Infratil is trying to get the support of the very stupid.

    Regrettably it seems that Mike Lee’s statement although sound may have some legal fishhooks. They should still give notice under the contract however.

    All that Auckland needs is enough money to buy 80 or so busses and start a bus company.

    This is fine by me.

    The last time that the bus system worked well was when it was in public ownership.

  2. lprent 2
    13 October 2009 at 9:40 pm

    NZ Bus/Infratil are bloody hopeless at spin. In the end it doesn’t matter what they get on TV of the bloody useless newspapers. It is what the bus commuters think that will screw them. Unfortunately they’re also the ones who see the bus drivers in action.

    There are a few monkeys amongst the drivers who seem to have come off talkback radio (bigoted, stupid, and utter wankers). However the vast majority are ok. I suspect the talkback idiots don’t last long – exposure to a lot of people is pretty eye-opening for most people. Tends to destroy the bigotry. Anyway, I seldom see the dickhead ones more than once..

  3. The Voice of Reason 3
    13 October 2009 at 10:01 pm

    This ‘offer’ is NZ Bus’s attempt to mirror the clever ‘drive the kids to school for free’ ploy the combined unions came out with on Sunday. Tomorrow, NZ Bus will say that the unions turned down the offer and its therefore their fault there are no services running from Thursday. Sad to say, I think the MSM won’t spot the difference and will parrot the line uncritically.

    Great though Mike Lee’s cracks at NZ Bus are, it looks to me like ARTA are going to ignore him and not actually follow through on their right to re-tender the contracts as he suggests. Positioning themselves in advance of the Supercity restructure perhaps?