Walworth Bus Garage in Camberwell is in the eye of the storm as bus drivers go on strike in London.

Darren Stedman, director of the Walworth Bus Garage, refused to comment on the strikes. He told South London Lines we could not talk to the drivers about strike action either.

A strike is serious business but the scene at the Garage is a bit less so. When this reporter visited, just days before the strike, the drivers were in high spirits, talking and laughing with one another.

Bus drivers say they are suffering from the cost-of-living crisis and their pay has not kept pace with rising prices. But the Abellio company’s bus drivers in Camberwell still seemed positive and resilient.

During the last two weeks of November, Abellio drivers held several strikes outside the Garage. Abellio, which employs hundreds of workers across south London, has been under fire recently for refusing to adequately compensate its workers.

Unite the Union reports that despite its wealth, Abellio pays its drivers some of the lowest rates of bus companies in London. Abellio pays its drivers £ 13 pounds an hour though other companies pay £ 6 more per hour. They rely heavily on putting drivers on overtime in order to meet the city’s needs but this ignores the driver’s needs.  

Drivers complain that Abellio has made general promises to increase pay in January but has yet to provide a concrete outline of how much this increase will be.  

Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham stated, “Abellio is a vastly wealthy multinational company that could and should be paying its workers a fair pay increase. With workers struggling to cope with rampant inflation, Abellio’s failure to even enter into meaningful pay talks is coldhearted and callous.” 

Transport for London has not yet issued a report on the extent of disruption the strikes have caused for commuters, but there were many complaints from locals on social media about disruptions to travel. A taxi driver who works in the Camberwell area said, “No one hailed my cab on the days they were striking in Camberwell”, which indicates the extent of local reliance on public transportation.

These strikes are yet another example of the rising unrest among Londoners with inflation and the growing cost of living crisis. Bus drivers are essential workers who have already been disrupted by the pandemic and have been demanding equal pay for some time. Many bus companies have already raised their wages to compensate their workers, but Abellio has yet to follow suit.  

The last time there was a major bus strike in Camberwell was in 2015, when drivers went viral on the internet for turning the strike into a block party on the street. At the time, the drivers spent the strike with reggae music and dancing, which resulted in an outpouring of widespread admiration from the local community in South London and around the world.

The strikes in Camberwell were less lively this time around reflecting the more somber mood the recent crises have caused, yet drivers were still cheerful.