It is not often that I find myself in agreement with anything the General Workers Union or its head Tony Zarb have to say. Not because I take a cavalier attitude to workers' rights (I hail from what is termed an old-fashioned workers' family), but because sometimes unions have a way of being heavy-handed and making matters worse.
But with the whole bus strike issue, as inconvenient as it is to the man in the street, I'm four square behind them. Reading reports about negotiations between the GWU, the Spanish bus company we have been lumped with (come back Arriva, all is forgiven) and an increasingly desperate government, smacks of surreality.
In an unusual attack of naivete, I had assumed that appropriate breaks and resting periods, as well as decent and humane conditions on the workplace, are the minimum required by law. And that no company, foreign or otherwise, could override this basic minimum with the excuse that 'conditions are acceptable under EU law'.
Judging by what is being reported - and the Spanish company has not contradicted any of these claims so far - bus drivers are working long shifts with no breaks in between. When they do take a break, they have to take it in a small container that lacks appropriate sanitary facilities and access to free water.
The latter, in a country whose summers see the 40 degree ceiling.
No wonder they are striking. The only reason they haven't resigned en masse is probably because, you know, they have a family to support and kids to feed.
I was horrified to read the defence brought forward by the bus company. It's not true that we rejected the break proposals, officials claimed. We just need more time to think about it.
The fact that the proposals needed to be made in the first place was already unacceptable. It is already a major problem that a union needs to intervene for workers to be given a decent break. That the employer wusses out and whines for 'more time' is contemptable.
How would the company's bigwigs like to be made to sit through board meeting after board meeting with no break? My guess is that we wouldn't hear the end of it - and let's not forget that a bigwig's responsibility tends to be limited to drinking coffee and pontificating.
Their work doesn't involve stressing out on some of the worst roads in Europe for hours on end, while responsible for a busload of passengers. But I'd bet you anything that they all insist on their long lunches and R&R.
And what was the first reaction by the bus company upon being presented with these facts? Sure, take a break by all means. We'll just carry out a bit of a deduction on your normal paycheque. Oh yeah, and we are also suing your union.
Excuse me while I LOL, roflcopter, roflmao and enlist the aid of a whole fleet of internet acronyms to demonstrate my amusement.
Now, two days and one bus strike later, all parties have agreed on a 15 minute break. Hardly a stellar conclusion but, apparently, one that will have to do for now.
And I, for one, am only left with unshakeable feeling of contempt for the bus company that felt it was appropriate to take advantage of its workers and that brought a whole country to a standstill and made 100s of employees suffer in the name of greed.