Driving a bus in these heatwaves is like driving a mobile greenhouse. Unite has distributed thermometers to members to monitor the temperature in our cabs. The problem is, these thermometers max out at 40 degrees celsius, whereas our cabs are getting much hotter than that. Some drivers who are bringing in their own thermometers are reporting in-cab temperatures up to 50 degrees. Work becomes unbearable. Drivers are having to pull over to douse themselves in water. It’s illegal to transport livestock in temperatures over 30 degrees, and yet we’re meant to keep driving buses in temperatures way beyond that. They’re asking us to do a job that’s physically impossible.

Our buses are just not adequate for these conditions. We used to have proper aircon in the cabs, but during COVID-19 Transport For London (TFL) decided that these systems were an infection risk because they circulated air between the driver and the passengers. Now we just have “air chilling”, which takes the outside air and cools it 5 degrees before pumping it into the cab. That’s alright if it’s 25 degrees outside, but when it’s 38 degrees you’re just pushing 33 degree air at the driver. And that’s before you account for solar heating. In the middle of the day, the sun pushes the cab to 10-15 degrees above outside air temperatures. And with climate change, it’s just going to get worse: we’re being told that each year is going to be hotter than the last.

We’re sleepwalking towards a major accident. We’ve had people pass out during their shifts. Driving a bus requires you to be on your game all the time. There are cyclists, electric scooters, pedestrians, bad drivers - all these different hazards. When it’s forty degrees that level of attention gets much harder to maintain. In June, a bus driver in the West of Paris collapsed at the wheel from heat exhaustion and ended up in a collision. Drivers there are sending us messages of solidarity talking about the hell of driving in this heat, and how they’re going to fight for aircon and shorter shifts.

TFL and the companies have made some changes in response to the heat. TFL has stopped using the percentage of route miles completed for performance management. The company that runs our garage, Arriva, has introduced heat breaks when there’s a weather warning. They think we can be in a 50 degree cab, pull over, get a can of pop and an ice lolly, and be ready to work again ten minutes later. There comes a point where you have to just say, we can’t do it. Meanwhile, our managers’ offices are air conditioned. It’s very easy to sit in an air conditioned office and tell drivers what to do. It’s much harder to operate a 15 tonne bus in a heatwave.

As I write this now, it’s 31 degrees outside, drivers are sending me pictures of 41.7 degree cab thermometers, but there’s no weather warning - so technically we’re not meant to be taking any heat breaks. And you have to bear in mind that the heat impacts different drivers in different ways. If you’re disabled or your body isn’t good at regulating heat you might be in real distress at 25 degrees, let alone 41.7. In all our training, we’re always told the safety of drivers and passengers is our number one priority. That’s drummed into us from day one. But what’s the reality?

My bus garage has around 400 drivers, and the vast majority of them are in the union. We’re not particularly militant, although we stand up to management when we need to.

We’ve been trying to work on cab temperatures for a long time. Three years ago we won a ballot for industrial action on cab temperatures. We went to Arriva and asked them to take steps to cool the buses down. They set up a working party that was tasked with finding a solution and we sat in talks with them. Well, they’ve had three years of opportunities to change, but the reality is it’s just not happening. They claim we’re working together and promised that cab temperatures would be better in time for this summer. But when May came we got the first heatwave and the temperatures went through the roof. They have tried some things but they haven’t worked as promised; somewhere along the line, someone has been sold a pup. Enough is enough, we’ve done everything by the book and nothing has changed.

The use of health and safety legislation to take dangerous buses out of circulation is having an impact on Arriva. TFL pays the companies per mile, so if a bus goes out of service they stop paying. The bus companies win the tenders for different routes by saying they will take the lowest per-mile rate. But now so many people have been using section 44 (the part of health and safety legislation that allows people to refuse to work in unsafe conditions) that the company has already lost 100s if not 1000s of miles from our garage alone. The nature of the action is different depending on circumstances: some people are refusing their buses and going home for the whole day, other people are taking half hour breaks. It’s not a coordinated thing. Mostly, managers are accepting our decisions. Some of the route controllers are trying to tell people to get back to work after 15 minutes, but I am advising members that it is their decision to make when they think it’s safe to continue working.

Section 44 has some shortcomings. Legally, it has to be an individual safety decision, and it relies on the confidence of the worker making that decision. Experienced drivers and union members know that they can’t suffer any detriment for protecting their safety and the safety of their passengers. But drivers on probation, or who have live disciplinary cases, are less likely to have that certainty.

That’s why we’re balloting for strike action. Going out on strike is an action by everybody, regardless of their individual confidence. We want aircon in our cabs and safe driving temperatures. It’s not a radical demand. Like I said, our branch isn’t historically militant. We all want to drive our buses, but we want to be given the tools to do that job safely.