The merchant bankers at First Capital, owner of NZ Bus, will be hoping their PR gurus will have a bit more fizz and bite than their carbonated namesakes. Given how last week’s NZBustastrophe ended, NZ Bus either received very bad PR advice from Thompson Lewis or else ignored very good PR advice from Thompson Lewis and locked out its drivers. It is quite difficult to unite GWRC (Greater Wellington Regional Council), the mayor, his councillors, the Tramways Union, the Combined Trade Unions, the minister of transport and the vast majority of the city’s highly annoyed bus commuters – but NZ Bus has done it.
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Gordon Jon Thompson, the former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, has been hired to do PR for NZ Bus during the driver strike. In a statement on Thursday, NZ Bus chief executive Jay Zmijewski said the company had been left with “no option but to issue the lockout notice “in response to the strike action, the disruption we have been experiencing, and the threat of further ‘surprise attack strikes’ by the union”. NZ Bus is owned by Australian private equity firm Next Capital, which acquired it for $229 million in 2018. He had the role while her intended chief of staff Mike Munro was on medical leave.
Wellington bus drivers are back on the roads after a lockout was overturned, and will continue to work while mediation takes place between the union and their employer, NZ Bus.
Saturday, 24 April 2021, 4:44 pm
Tramways Union members will be heading back to driving
duties tomorrow following an Employment Court ruling which
brings an end to NZ Bus’ indefinite lockout.
Greater
Wellington Chair Daran Ponter calls the ruling a victory for
common sense and says the decision will pave the way for
much more positive negotiations in the coming
weeks.
“This is the news that Wellingtonians,
politicians, business owners and retailers needed to hear.
The lockout was threatening to leave thousands of
Wellingtonians in the lurch and have a real impact on our
region’s economy.
“We’ve put the living wage on