Burnham brings GM bus network back under public control

The metro mayor said the “deregulated” bus network had “not been driven by the needs of our communities, but by bus operators’ responsibilities to their shareholders to make a profit… We can only change that and hold the decline if we bring the buses back under the control of the public.”

Burnham brands ‘fire and rehire’ practices ‘industrial blackmail’

Andy Burnham met Go North West bosses last week to discuss service disruption.

While careful to distinguish the industrial dispute between GNW and its drivers from other instances of ‘fire and rehire’ practices, the mayor says issuing Section 188 notices to renegotiate workers’ employment contracts is tantamount to ‘industrial blackmail’.