BUS driver strikes could intensify nationwide as disputes over pay and working conditions continue.

Around 7,500 bus workers are either already planning to strike or balloting for industrial action, their union Unite announced today.

Walkouts involving 2,000 London United workers in west London, 1,000 First West of England drivers in Bristol and 70 Go South West workers in Swindon have already been announced. 

Strikes will spread to 450 bus workers in Cardiff and 600 Stagecoach workers if the offers currently being balloted are rejected.

Bus workers elsewhere are also locked in disputes, mostly over pay, in Birkenhead, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Chorley, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Stoke and Swindon.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Bus employers everywhere need to get the message loud and clear: driver pay simply does not reflect the stresses and strains of the job. 

“Fatigue, a lack of toilets, abuse and even assaults are a daily occurrence. Unite will fight tooth and nail for bus workers until wages and conditions improve across the sector.”

The union has overseen 167 bus disputes since 2023 involving 42,626 workers.

Unite is also currently campaigning for improvements to rest breaks, toilet facilities and shift patterns.

Last month, as many drivers endured sweltering cabs during heatwaves, the union gave its members an official letter to present to management.

The letter cites section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which allows workers to remove themselves from a position of “serious and imminent danger.”