LONDON bus bosses were made to eat their words yesterday when a massive display of solidarity saw thousands of drivers strike in only the second capital-wide walkout since the 1980s.

Employers and publicly owned managing body Transport for London (TfL) had sought to smear the industrial action before it began with claims that only a tiny percentage of members backed it.

But on the day thousands of Unite members respected the ballot result in a clear message that bus workers intend to put an end to unfair pay.

Unite regional official Wayne King said: “TfL and the mayor need to take a look at the streets of London today and bang the bus operators’ heads together to end the pay inequality on London’s buses.

“Today’s strike action has been solidly supported and illustrates the depth of anger over the huge pay disparities among the people who keep London on the move 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

More than 70 per cent of services were hit, while in many of London’s 70 depots just a tiny handful of scabs turned up for work.

At the heart of the dispute is the vast difference in pay for new recruits at the capital’s hotch-potch of privateers, ranging from £9.30 to £12.34 an hour.

TfL director of buses Mike Weston claimed that raising pay would lead to a “cut in bus services, an increase in fares, or both.”

But the privateers that operate services on behalf of TfL made a collective £171.7 million in profits according to the most recent figures.

Mr King said: “The bus operators can well afford to tackle the pay inequality and we would urge them to collectively get around the table and start talking about a fair deal for London’s bus workers.”

Strikers on the ground said the problem was a tendering process that sees private firms compete for public cash by cutting wages.

Recent recruits driving the same routes as more experienced colleagues are now earning more than £100 a week less — with one firm offering £9.30 an hour and no prospect of advance for a decade.