The East Yorkshire bus strike has been the subject of several articles in Zhe Week and many readers have responded to the pamphlet "No Bus Today" published by the Busmen's Dispute Strike Committee. The following article on the outcome of the strike is by Jack Baker, the chairman of the Strike Committee. It was first publisked in Humberside Voice,
"The strike is over - for the time being. The temporary result can be called a "draw" at best. The feeling of many of us on the strike committee was that we could definitely have held out for a further week or two, and that Wreathall would by then have been desperate to get the buses on the road for Christmas week, which is a big money spinner for them. This feeling is now being expressed by the men very strongly. Still, last month a& small majority did accept the advice of the national officers to go back. "For those who (like Mr. Wreathall and his boss Carling) expected that the result would be the demoralisation of the men, we have news $ Strong opinion is running in the ranks of the bus crews that, if no further steps are taken on the bonus question within a month, then further action by us should follow. Far from being disillusioned ..... . they have benefited greatly from the experience of their own solidarity, and of the great displays of sympathy and support they received from the trade union movement in general. For two months we in the Hull depots stood absolutely firm and united: something we had never experienced before. Over the whole period of dispute, from September through to the period after the strike, men and women have been joining the union to the extent that membership has jumped from about 75 per cent of all crews to about 95 per cent .... and... . the union branch is busy taking on a 'new look'. The members of the strike committee have all joined the branch committee, and will take on direct scrutiny of all duty schedules which are being proposed by management or the union officerse:: 3s . 2:6 "Two outstanding lessons of the strike remain to be leant. First, that the employers regarded it as a NaTIONaL issue throughout. Carling ... said that other private bus interests (they are all part of the same set-up anyway) had told him to hold out against the strike as a defence of principle. Our pamphlet warned that this would happen when it showed the huge monopoly structure of the private bus empire. The union, and busmen everywhere, mst always have in mind the kind of 'thousand tentacled octopus' that we are fighting. "Secondly, at the heart of this dispute is the co-ordination system - the operation of routes jointly by the Corporation Department and ourselves. At no time was this purely LOCAL arrangement dealt with during the strike. The extension of route working - at lower pay -— is partly the responsibility of Hull's Labour-controlled Transport Dept. We MUST get these people involved, and they mst be told to act according to the interests of workers, not the E.Y.M.S. "To all readers who helped us during the strike, our best thanks. We can confidently say that you will be hearing from us again. To all E.Y.M.S. workers, I would say - your loyalty and solidarity were great: keep it up now, for we are not finished with our fight for decent conditions and for equal pay for equal work,"