Go North East strike: Engineers walkout suspended

The engineers were due to walk out from 19 to 25 December

A strike by bus engineers in the run-up to Christmas has been suspended, a transport operator has said.

About 150 members of the Unite union at Go North East had been due to walk out from 19 to 25 December amid a dispute over pay.

Go North East said it had had "constructive talks" with Unite and engineers would vote on accepting a revised pay offer within "the next few days".

Unite has been approached for comment.

The union had rejected a 10% pay increase claiming it was a real-terms pay cut.

Go North East managing director Nigel Featham, said: "I am pleased to say that talks with Unite proved productive.

"We have made a fresh offer, which remains within our budgets and is one I believe all parties can confidently get behind.

"We were always confident that passengers would not have been impacted by the strike, but this takes away any threat of a disruption to bus services in the run-up to Christmas."

The strike action was due to affect bus routes operating from depots in Consett, Dunston, Gateshead, Hexham, North Shields, Sunderland and Washington.