POPULAR WORDS

The New South Wales branch of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) is calling on the new owners of Greyhound Pioneer (GPAL) to give a commitment that drivers' jobs will be protected. The call comes after reports that six terminal staff employed by GPAL in Canberra were sacked yesterday in a move to rationalise services. "Following yesterday's decision, the drivers at Greyhound deserve nothing less than an iron-clad commitment that their jobs will be protected," TWU NSW branch state secretary Tony Sheldon says. "Just two years ago these drivers agreed to work under a sub-standard non-union agreement in an attempt to keep Greyhound on the road in response to pleas from the company to work together to keep things afloat," he says. The new owners of GPAL, McCafferty's, have made no secret of the fact that jobs will be lost as the two companies merge services in order to create a more efficient national coach network. "As far as runs are concerned, we've always said why have two buses leave at the same time and go bumper to bumper all the way to Cairns or Melbourne or Tennant Creek or Alice Springs when one bus can do the job," McCaffety's executive director, Tony McCafferty, told ABC magazine earlier this month. Sheldon says the Greyhound management should be doing everything it can to ensure the jobs and legal entitlements of drivers are protected and secured. The TWU has called a meeting of drivers and is seeking urgent meetings with the management of both Greyhound Pioneer and McCaffety's, Sheldon says.