Your report about objections to striking bus drivers congregating at the rail workers' war memorial is a red herring (Strikers picket on war memorial, September 2).

The real issue is that First York pays its drivers a pittance. Many people in York can't afford the luxury of a car and depend on the bus service to get around the city. The drivers are responsible for our safety while we are on their buses and they frequently face verbal abuse and physical attacks.

For this, First York pays as little as £5.36 an hour, while its fat cat bosses rake in the profits. That is the real scandal, and imagined insults to the victims of war should not be used to obscure the justice of the

drivers' cause.

Frank Ormston,

Waverley Street,

York.

...PJ BOWMAN is critical of the strike tactics being employed by the bus drivers' union, the TGWU (Letters, September 1). He points to a holiday in Milan where the bus drivers were involved in a dispute and decided to drive the buses without receiving pay and accepting fares from passengers.

While I am sure that York's bus drivers do not want to deliberately inconvenience the people of York, if they drove the buses and refused to accept fares I suspect they would be in clear breach of their employment contracts and would probably be sacked.

If this is Mr Bowman's idea of "rethinking industrial relations" I would fundamentally reject it. I hope the days where workers were sacked for engaging in industrial action are gone for good.

Rory Palmer,

Goodricke College,

York.

Updated: 12:10 Friday, September 05, 2003