As reported earlier by YWN Israel, SuperBus drivers staged a partial strike this morning, which affected mainly their Modi’in Illit-Yerushalayim-Bnei Brak routes.

The strike was over after a number of hours, but the drivers are threatening to start a full strike on Sunday. After speaking with a Superbus official from the Bet Shemesh depot, YWN has learned that the strike – at least in Bet Shemesh – will not include all the bus operators. The unnamed official said he is expecting a “small percentage of drivers to go on strike”. When asked how many drivers are in that small percentage, he said “I don’t expect more than 20, maybe 25 drivers to go on strike”. However, he did not disclose the number of bus drivers working in his depot. With more than 30 bus lines in the Bet Shemesh terminal, take an educated guess and you can say there are more than 300 drivers working there. He added that Superbus is trying to come to an agreement before Sunday and hopes that the strike will be averted.

The strike caused the company to bring in many freelance bus drivers as outside contractors to continue service, something that they often do anyway during peak hours. Despite the efforts of the company, many passengers were stranded for hours in the heat of the day as they waited for buses to arrive. When the buses finally did arrive, they were filled after the first two stops, in some case well over the legal limit of 10 standing passengers on inter-city routes (as this video taken on a bus today shows)

 
(Feivel Katz – YWN Israel)