Community stands strong with bus drivers to oppose privatisation

***The Loco Division continues to support our colleagues in the Bus Division. Here’s the latest update from Bus Express***

The community of the Inner West has demonstrated its strong support for bus drivers through its attendance at two major events over the last two weeks.

Hosted by NSW Labor MPs Jo Haylen and Sophie Costsis on June 15 the ‘Meet the Drivers’ night was held at the Herb Greedie Hall in Marrickville to a full house of concerned commuters and ‘Don’t Sell Our Buses’ campaign supporters.

The bus drivers gave an excellent account of the frustrations of managing Sydney traffic while many older people highlighted their deep concern over the removal of bus stops, and how this would affect mobility impaired commuters from using the bus for vital tasks like food shopping.

On June 20 at Leichhardt, Greens MPs Jamie Parker, Jenny Leong and Mehreen Faruqi hosted a Town Hall meeting which was attended by over 300 people, outraged with the NSW Government’s plans to sell off their buses, which are an important community asset.

RTBU Tram and Bus Division Secretary Chris Preston outlined how the community could get involved with the campaign by signing the paper and online petitions and participating in the commuter day of action which is taking place on the 5^th of July.

The bus drivers and other public transport workers were blown away by level of community support.

Both events demonstrate that the community is just as angry as bus drivers about the privatisation and strongly supports the ‘Don’t Sell Our Buses Campaign.’

We thank all politicians for organising these events and everyone who took time to attend.’