FROM 3am the strikers began arriving at the entrance to Stagecoach’s sprawling Leyton Green depot in east London.

Cavernous halls usually filled with the roar of revving engines and diesel fumes were near silent as dozens of pickets began their shift.

Lines of darkened buses loomed out of the shadows — only nine of 130 were driven out by a handful of scabs.

As the strikebreakers returned they were greeted with a chorus of boos.

Local Unite union rep Sue Jewell, who has worked on the buses for seven years, says the numbers who have walked out speaks volumes.

“The fact we are all stood out here says the drivers are willing to do it,” she says.

In any case, she adds, even Transport for London’s claim that “30 per cent of services running means that there are 70 per cent who are striking.”

At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental unfairness that Ms Jewell sees herself every day.

“I do the same job as the man over there,” she says, pointing.

“He earns £100 less a week — but we drive the same route, we do the same hours, we work the same shifts.

“And he’s got no chance of it going up to the same level as me.”

The way TfL asks firms to battle for contracts means that the “only thing they can compete with is our wages,” Ms Jewell says.

“Pay has got to be taken out of the tendering process.”

Ms Jewell predicts there will be more strikes to come unless bus companies sit down together with unions for “sensible talks.”