Striking bus drivers will stop work from 17 November to 10 January as the latest pay talks failed to reach an agreement.

Stagecoach South Wales services have been affected for ten days since drivers first walked out on Saturday 19 October. Unite Cymru has announced a non-stop period of action of over seven weeks unless the hourly rate for drivers is increased to £10.50.

The union said this rate of pay has already been approved by the bus company in other parts of the UK. Protests have been taking place outside the depots in Blackwood, Brynmawr and Cwmbran.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is determined to fight for a better deal for our members at Stagecoach. We will not accept workers in South Wales receiving inferior pay to their colleagues in other parts of the UK. This dispute will now escalate and Unite will back our members with all of its strength and resources’.

Unite Regional Officer Alan McCarthy said: “We are bitterly disappointed by the approach of Stagecoach management at today’s ACAS talks. Our reasonable proposals to end this dispute were rejected out of hand, by an employer seemingly hell bent on maintaining low pay.” He added that drivers have seen their pay increase by “less than 75p an hour between 2016 and 2020.”