The Action Committee of WISAG Ground Workers in Frankfurt stand in solidarity with London bus driver David O'Sullivan, who lost his job for standing up for the health and lives of his colleagues.

David, the fact that you were dismissed at the beginning of February for trying to warn your colleagues about the risk of infection from Covid-19 in the depot is not legal. In England, you have the right to a safe workplace under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act.

In London, at least 60 bus drivers have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began. So, you were more than justified in warning of the dangers.

It is therefore wrong for your employer, the transport company Metroline, to accuse you of spreading “false and damaging information” and inciting “unlawful industrial action.” Is it legal, for example, to suffer death for doing your job?

The fact that the Unite union will not support you and Unite representatives even submitted testimony against you at an initial hearing is a travesty. But this is also in line with our experience. Our works council representatives from the Verdi union did not lift a finger for us either. On the contrary, by agreeing to a miserable “social plan”, they ensured we would be fobbed off with handouts. We have laid a funeral wreath in front of Verdi headquarters in Frankfurt to show that this organisation is dead to us workers.

London bus drivers such as you have shown solidarity with us. At the beginning of March, the London Bus Rank-and-File Committee wrote, “In opposition to the trade unions, we recognise no national borders in our fight. Whether in Brexit Britain or the European Union, workers face the same bonfire of our terms and conditions to further enrich a criminal financial oligarchy which tramples our basic rights.”

That is absolutely right. The working class must stand together, we must not allow ourselves to be pitted against each other.

In solidarity,

HB for the WISAG Action Committee

Visit here to find out more and join the campaign for David O’Sullivan’s reinstatement. You can donate to O’Sullivan’s legal defence here .