Photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, October 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
Categories: workers' rights - Tags:

Some photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout. The drivers showed up to the depots today to demonstrate they were willing to work, while the NZ Bus/Infratil managers stared at them from behind locked gates.

These are from the picket line at the Mt Roskill depot:

No Right Turn reports there will be a picket to support the drivers tomorrow morning at 10am outside the NZ Bus head office at the corner of Halsey Street and Gaunt Street in Auckland.

18 comments on “Photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout ”

  1. sweetd 1

    Big thank you to the non buses on auckland’s roads today. Made excellent time into work without the usual stop start nonsense of having buses on the roads. Please, keep it up!!!

    • rocky 1.1

      Let’s see if you feel the same way tomorrow when everyone has figured out that the buses aren’t running and drive their cars to work instead.

      Did you notice how much worse the traffic was this evening?

      • sweetd 1.1.1

        Actually Rocky, traffic home was a breeze as well.

        As mentioned, the real crap will start on Monday when school holidays are over. But, that is really another topic, the amount of traffic generated by schools, and how much difference it makes when they are on holiday. Maybe it is because I am getting older now, but as a kid (1970s-80) I either walked, rode by bike or caught a bus to school. How many get driven to school now?

  2. rainman 2

    Good on Mike Lee and the ARC for pulling the $150,000/day funding for NZ Bus while this lockout is in place.

  3. John Dalley 3

    How about the ARC pull NZ Bus’s contract.

  4. John, where are we going to find 800 replacement buses to operate Monday’s service?

    Things were pretty quiet this morning – I would say a lot of people decided to take the day off or work from home. In the evening the roads around the CBD seemed a lot busier. The real test will be if this is still going on Monday when school returns.

    That’s when the shit will really hit the fan.

  5. SHG 5

    A lot of those photos seem to be of the genre “zoom in on a face with a narrow depth of field and then apply the High Contrast Black&White filter in Lightroom”. They don’t convey anything about the event or the issue. They could be photos of people visiting the zoo for all I know.

    The colour photos of groups of people, often holding signs or placards, they get the message across. They’re more useful as pieces of photojournalism.

    • Daveo 5.1

      I think the idea is to show the viewer the human face of the dispute.

    • Sorry SHG

      These photos are good. They show the human side to a picket line. I found them really moving and I feel the urge to go to the next picket to lend my support.

  6. Steve 6

    Shocking Photoshopping, some images are done by kids I think.
    Discovery Channel has a program “Is it real?” which may give hints.
    I mean if the Bus Drivers want some sort of recognition for protesting, then please get a good PR Manager in the Union.
    The photos are a joke.

    • Maynard J 6.1

      What on earth are you talking about??

    • Sorry Steve

      This is a record of real humans who are fighting for decent conditions for their work. They are highly trained individuals, at high speed they drive busses through busy urban roads while collecting humans and fares and they are paid slightly more than the minimum wage.

      They decided that they should be paid more. They did not decide to strike, they decided to work to rule, which means that they decided to do no more than they are legally obliged to do.

      They deserve our support and a much greater wage. And the photos are really good.

  7. BLiP 7

    techno bunny question # 1,973,667: Why can’t I see the pictures?

  8. Simon 8

    Thanks for the comments on the photos.

    Please note that the NDU only has 40 drivers involved in this dispute. We are donating a lot of our time and resources in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Tramways and Akarana dispute. These photos are from a Tramway Union site and not an NDU site.

    As I’m sure you are aware, union photography plays three roles:

    1. A historical record of a dispute
    2. Photos for the members involved in the dispute
    3. Publicity for the dispute.

    The photos above are from a Flickr page. They are primarily for number 2 – photos for members of the dispute with their mates. And yes they are cropped et al in Lightroom. I don’t see that as being a problem, they are for the members themselves and they aren’t going to care.

    There are more photos but unfortunately we haven’t had time to upload them yet. I’m not actually a photographer and have work with Warehouse workers who are facing cut backs etc.

    I would encourage everyone to pop down to the dispute and take pictures. It would be greatly appreciated. We are happy to put them up on our flickr page too and also use them for publicity if they are suitable.

    Thanks again for the comments.

    Yours,
    Simon

    • John 8.1

      Hey choice photos Simon! I found them moving and thought they were highly effective.

      Like Simon I would echo the call that if trained photographers want to donate their time to cover disputes or protests that would be awesome. Until then the work of people like Simon is immensely important. If you want to give technical critiques of images go join a photography forum.

      John

  9. Lani 10

    Great pics guys, ignore the haters, and good on the drivers for all their hard work…they deserve fair pay and I fully support their cause!

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