Newcastle bus drivers need your help. Newcastle’s private bus operator, Keolis Downer, doesn’t think these essential workers deserve pay rises that will keep up with the rising cost of living. Keolis Downer has offered drivers a meagre 10.5% pay increase over four years, despite inflation looking set to hit 7% just by the end of this year. Following a four hour strike on June 3rd, management told workers if they wanted extra pay they could work Sundays. Newcastle bus drivers just want to have their pay keep up with the cost of living and to be able to afford to live in the city they work in. Yet Keolis Downer refuses to accept RTBU’s very reasonable request of a 7% pay rise over 2 years. Continuing the fight, drivers went on strike for 24 hours yesterday and have turned off ticketing machines indefinitely. Now we need your help to support these essential workers. Sign the petition now to call on Keolis Downer to meet RTBU's demands!

The issue of bus driver assaults is not new, it has been going on for years. In Queensland for the past 10 years the issue has been researched, debated and reviewed and the need for public transport buses to be fitted with bus driver safety screens clearly identified in the 2017 Bus Driver Safety Review. Queensland public transport is administered by the government department of Transport and Main Roads under the TransLink banner. TMR/TransLink awards contracts to bus operators and it fully funds the cost of providing these services and provides funds for the purchase of buses used in these contracts. The Bus Driver Safety Review identified the need for bus driver safety screens to be fitted to urban buses under the TransLink banner. All new buses purchased by TransLink contractors must be fitted with bus driver safety screens. It will take another 21 years for the entire fleet of buses under the TransLink banner to be replaced with buses fitted with driver safety screens. Therefore, for another 21 years bus drivers working for contractors under the TransLink banner will be at risk of assault because they will be driving a bus that is not fitted with a driver safety screen. I am asking for your assistance to petition the Queensland Government to fully fund the cost of retrofitting the entire TransLink branded bus fleet.

Because TISM