BUS users were hit today by a second one-day strike by Stagecoach drivers over pay.

Many turned up in freezing conditions at bus stations throughout the district only to learn the action had halted virtually all services.

And there was the prospect of more misery to come as the busmen announced they aimed to hold Monday strikes each week until their demands are met.

Stagecoach Ribble Burnley union branch secretary Khadim Hussain said the men were more determined than ever to get a just settlement from Britain's biggest bus operator.

Pickets waited outside the Queensgate depot and Burnley bus station was deserted as the strike bit.

Some 90 Burnley-based Stagecoach Ribble drivers were joined by more than 100 Stagecoach Burnley busmen who refused to cross the picket lines.

Mr Hussain said the death of 50-year-old driver Frank Dean, of Town Walk, Blackburn, who was crushed by a bus when he joined the protest at Blackburn depot in the first one-day strike last month had had an immense affect on the resolve of the busmen.

The Transport and General Workers Union had asked for £5 per hour back-dated to May 1998. The company's latest offer of £5.03p from January 1 was rejected.

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