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Updated 9.05 am
https://vine.co/v/51vzq37TeqO
DUBLIN’S RAIL SERVICES were packed full this morning as bus drivers return to pickets and their strike action entered its second week.
Dart services were operating at full capacity with Iarnród Éireann staff reporting that, although it’s been busy, the service has been coping.
Again this week buses were off the road from 9pm last night, a decision taken by Dublin Bus that drivers’ unions say is unnecessary
Drivers say they would have returned buses to depots even if their shift ran later than midnight.
Hundreds of thousands of commuters around the capital are being affected by the action today and tomorrow, with a further two days of stoppages planned on 23 and 24 September.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie at a busy Pearse Street station this morning, a number of students were among those distrupted by the strike.
“I usually get the 145 out to Bray from Heuston Station because I’m travelling from Kildare, but I’m completed f**ked now like, I’m definitely late,” one said.
Another student travelling from outside the capital explains that it makes her commute much harder:
I’m from Meath so it’s like two trains. It is pain because I had to get up earlier and then I have to last the whole day in school. We’re sixth years so we have study and get the whole train home.
All Dublin Bus services are affected by the strike. Here’s what you need to know if you usually use the bus:
Unions are seeking a 15% pay increase over the next three years for drivers and a 6% rise they say they were due to get under an agreement in 2009, but which was deferred.
Dublin Bus claims in a statement that the continued industrial action by trade unions and employees is costing the company in excess of €600,000 each day.
The company claims the six strike days will cost the company €5.5 million and that a 15% pay increase would undermine its financial stability.
It stated: “These mounting costs further diminish our ability to fund the 8.25% recommended by the Labour Court.”
According to a Claire Byrne Live/Amárach poll this week, 38% of the public support the bus drivers’ decision to strike for a 15% pay increase.
https://vine.co/v/51vBFtH6mQ1
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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Great day if you’re cycling to work… the chances of dying drop by 10,000%..
You dump cycles are the problem, not the buses
Dump cycles Seamus?
How many cyclists have actually been killed by Dublin Bus drivers?
Yes it was a lovely morning for a cycle and the traffic was surprisingly light.
Give Seamus his crayons for the day.. he needs to get to work
Solidarity with the dump cyclists, the bus drivers and the bad spellars.
Greyhound and Deliveroo joined forces I believe..
Any way you slice it this ends up costing the tax payers money. Wage increases will be coming out of our pockets one way or another to pay for overpaid low skilled workers who just happen to be in a position where they can hold the city hostage. Pure greed.
Hopefully a politician for once will Stick to his word and Shane Ross will not open the state cheque book. A 8% pay rise is something most private sector workers would take hand and all for considering inflation is at most 2%.
The fares have been increased without fail eaxh year while the drivers have not had a raise in nearly a decade. Workers fighting for a decent wage is not pure greed. Maybe your thinking of Apples vast tax dodging or the vulture funds masquerading as charities which are looting the country while families are thrown on to the streets?
Your up early Billy. Wasn’t expecting a response from you till after 9. Big day on.
Talk about the odious debt Wally.
Or tell us about the aggregate…something.
Oh oh…tell us about slavering…whatchamacallit
Entitlement Ireland’s money grab continues unabated.
Get back to work.
Correct, they are entitled to an agreed pay increase they never received
No one is “entitled” to a pay increase.
You earn it, but that’s not something Entitlement Ireland understand.
Bill has Dublin Bus profits increased year on year as well, you keep on repeating the fare increase line but don’t mention Dublin Bus profit margin. I wonder why that is?? Dublin Bus drivers are on a very good wage as it is, how are they fighting for a decent wage when they’re among the best paid bus drivers on the EU.
Paul, Dublin Bus gets a ~€50m subsidy from the Gov’t (and hence the tax payer) every year and w/out it would make a significant loss every year.
@mickmc, Billy must be going to collect his dole money and has to leave earlier due to the bus strike.
They made a profit last year..10 million I believe..
@The spokesman. I was thinking afterwards he probably has joined his comrades on the picket line.
Learn to spell first before you take anymore shots bud..
Your early this morning, is it dole day?
Of course they are entitled to a pay increase if it has been agreed
PaulJ,
You understand that the public transport subvention to Dublin bus has been cut by 25% since 2008 in order to help pay for the bankers debts? (Another example of pure greed for Seth)
And you may have missed this but Dublin Bus is a public transport system. The objective of running it on a for profit basis is nonsense.
And the fact that a public transport system is loss making in monetary terms should not matter in the slightest because at a macro government/central bank level money is instantly available to those entities that issue the currency. They don’t need the public transport system to generate money.
It’s important to differentiate between money and real wealth/ resources. Money is how we measure wealth and also a claim on society’s resources. Our fiat currency money is created (and deleted) at will on the computer keyboards of the world’s commercial and central banks. At a macro level there can never be a shortage of a fiat floating currency like the Euro, sterling dollar etc.
In contrast to the instant availability of money, the real wealth of goods and services that we all depend on (including the transport network) is created by the labour and skill of the working class from the raw material of the planet. Everything from the food in our bellies to the clothes on our backs right up to the most sophisticated technology is made by the workers.
Money is a claim on that real wealth produced by the working class and this is where money derives it’s power. The capitalist system peddles the illusion that there is a shortage of money (balance the books, reduce the deficit, live within your means etc) in order to oppress and control the working class who are the real creators of wealth.
And the working class has produced more than enough real resources to provide everyone on the planet with proper nutrition, a decent home, healthcare, education and a job. It’s a political and ideological choice to deny people these basics.
@,Seamus. I’m up at 6am to go to work.
Mk76 maybe one of the reasons for this wage increase might be the huge hikes for car Insurance scams run by the private sector supported by our Government You should read about the huge increase which are being demanded from workers to keep their cars on the road so they can go to work if you did you and others might not be so quick as to badmouth the bus drivers
Seth Don’t badmouth the workers if you did not do the job
PaulJ Europe are the low pay masters so don’t judge the book by the cover
Funny, funny, funny…
Yes a very good wage PaulJ… It’s that good that we still recieve F.I.S …. Seriously .. The myths & propaganda that people beleive is beyond me.
out of interest, while the drivers are striking anyway, should it not be a good time to open up Dublin bus routes to competition? a bit of competition would give drivers the chance to move to somewhere where they can be paid “what they are worth”.
@Alan Scott, is it only the bus drivers that are affected by the hike in car insurance costs?
Take away the 50 mill subsidy Celtic and you’re left with how much….?
Steve, inconvenient truths that go against Entitlement Ireland’s narrative are not appreciated in these parts.
@Billy Mooney:
I’ve asked you to address a couple of questions in previous blogs relating to your line of thought in relation to money at a macro level. You don’t address these. I will ask again.
In Ireland, we don’t have independence of monetary policy. Either do any countries in the EU. So the fact in this instance is that we do face a restriction of money at a macro level in Ireland as do countries in the EU. Will you address this point?
Notwithstanding this, we will consider a country with an independent monetary policy and control over its currency. In this instance, there will not be a restriction on money at a macro level. You are right to say this. But there will be a restriction of real resources at a macro level. This will lead to issues around inflation, balance of payments, etc. You have not addressed this. And you must remember that this issue will be worse for small economies and developing economies: These would be economies that would be within the groupings that the PBP and AAA would support. Yet you don’t consider how “real resources at a macro level” and “MMT” will restrict there wealth creation(of labour or capital) in their economies. Enlighten us to these Balance of Payments problems that will arise in MMT, as they arise in other systems…
Why don’t the drivers just not buy their own buses and then they can make all the money that they think that they deserve?
I would like to try that in the private sector and tell the boss that I am not going to work if I do not get a 15% pay increase.
Most workers including those in the private sector benefit from the many battles won by earlier unions. 40 hour week, minimum wage, workplace health and safety etc etc etc. You deserve those protections but you only have them because workers organized into unions and fought for them.
Billy, it is more about money than anything else. If everybody demanded that kind of money for the service that they provide the country would be broke.
Who would cover all of these pay increases? Why don’t we look at the average wage for bus drivers across Europe and ask for parity with them? Lets have a look at France, Germany and the likes and give them the same pay and conditions? Would that appease them?
Billy, you’re correct to say that most of the current employment legislation is due to the influence of unions in the past. But unfortunately, that’s where most unions belong, in the past. I don’t disagree that the Dublin Bus drivers deserve a pay rise given all the circumstances surrounding them. But to use that as an example that all unions are still relevant is absurd.
The country is broke George but not because of increased wages for workers. It’s because €100+ billion of private banking debt was loaded on to our backs. And that’s the reason why the subvention to Dublin Bus has been cut by 25% while the fares are increased to make up the shortfall and the drivers have not had a pay rise in nearly a decade.
What a stupid commet
George go back to bed. It’s not your time to shine yet
Billy, read my comment again, and come back to me then. You’ve copied that link into several of you replies over the months, and once again, it doesn’t apply here.
Unions arnt worth anything anymore I’ve been a member of two of the the Teen and siptu and both of them couldn’t give a crap about there members until the member stops paying there fees.
George, you are right. If these drivers are not satisfied with their current large wages, it’s time to start privatising Dublin Bus. It’s already happened in other countries so it time to look at their models & improve on it. You can’t have a few hundred people holding a capital city to ransom.
Stephen,
The comment is relevant each time as the truth doesn’t wear out. You believe that most unions belong in the past and the example given illustrates why unions belong in the present and are vital to protect workers.
the only relevant fact is that drivers on €50k want to get €60k for the same job, and they know Dublin bus are not in a position to do it, so they want the taxpayer to handed it to them instead. So all of those striking are essential telling the people on the bus to fluck off unless they give them each a personal €200 a week tip on top of their wages.
I’m not sure where you’re getting your 50K & 60k figures.
Dublin Bus drivers don’t earn close to that.
I’m not saying I support the strike or their request for 15% but I think you should get your facts correct before commenting.
It is not often I say this but I actually agree with Billy. Point well made. The workers united, will never be defeated.
Privatise like Irish water? Not everyone lives in the cities James. First thing to go would be loss making rural routes than would leave a lot of people isolated. First instinct would be to say why should they be subsidised? Most of the country subsidise Dublin bus, Dart etc but hardly get to use them.
Don’t be silly Jayo. The primary objective of the private sector is to maximize profit. This is achieved by paying workers as little as possible and working them as hard as possible. It’s precisely nothing to do with merit. If employers are allowed to exploit in the absence of unions that’s exactly what they’ll do. As the workers on the state subsidized forced labour activation schemes like Jobsbridge will confirm.
@mairead, if you take the recent nbru wages sheet, and tie it in with the Dublin bus annual report into his worked by drivers, and also their financial information on average salaries in their financial reports, then the average salary is €45k to €50k. The requested increase of 6% plus an additional 15% will bring this to €60k. As i haven’t ever seen figures like this from drivers to compare them to everyone else in Ireland, you have to extrapolate information from various sources, but it is based on public information. the question is do you still support average bus drivers (not the anecdotes of “my da has no money for tea bags” or “we had to sell the villa” that we normally hear in pubs from drivers families) if they are putting low paid people at a loss if they are claiming €60k?
Just a quick line in relation to Dublin Bus strike. As the media keep highlighting the Dublin bus drivers are on strike again, it’s not only drivers ,this dispute also involves maintenance clerical and inspector grades too. So could the media highlight this please . Dublin bus staff on strike not Dublin bus drivers on strike again. Thanks
Funny you should mention inspectors, I saw some on a bus on Tue in Drumcondra, and again yesterday morning. Literally haven’t seen one in years.
Coincidence?
Get private operators onto routes to solve the congestion caused by this protest. Crazy that people have paid for fares and will loose out.
Robert you should take a look at our neighbours in the UK before you get excited on that little prospect
I feel sorry for the city business and there workers this weekend
Why would you feel sorry for them?The buses are running this weekend.
Pay the men a decent wage and be done with it.
How do they get paid on a Sunday? Problem is all these companies employeed by state owned or backed by state business are full of entitlement
Eh, they already are?
1916: “what do we want?” : “a fair wage!” … 2016: “what do we want?” : “€35k more than the average wage instead of €25k more” – it just doesn’t have the same ring, does it?
Support the workers and their right to strike.
good for you Bryan… did you make it to work yet? btw: with that right to strike, there is also a responsibility not to unless absolutely necessary. Unless these guys are experiencing some sort of hardship, then they are wasting that right, and public support, for greed.
@Alien8: Yes I did, thank you for your concern. There is no impediment on a worker if they vote with their union for industrial action. You may be trying to tie your own qualifiers to when a worker may strike or is allowed to in your opinion.
Support the workers
You got to be joking right Colm? In this nation of begrudgers and I’m alright Jacks? Since the peasants got their first whiff of money during the boom they have gotten right uppity since. Before then I was proud to say that the Irish were the most loveliest and helpful people on the planet. When the monetary tide went out it seems to have taken our compassion and empathy for our fellow countryman with it..
Normal commute of 50mins only took 30mins (Lucan to Ringsend) through the city – Strike away lads, long may it last
Lucky you
“I’m from Meath so it’s like two trains.”
Like two trains or actually two trains?? FFS.
It is like two trains probably means the train was similar to two trains, in other words one very long train.
I saw a LUAS driver picking up a new 162-D Hyundai on Long Mile Road yesterday. He was telling me the extra mod-cons like heated seats he was getting. He’s in the money with the big wage rise. Nearby at Kylemore stop were the LUAS passengers who were paying for the new motor.
Was it fitted with a Joy stick instead of a steering wheel?
What a fecker Bryan eh ! Did he pay cash ?
They are driving a bus. pack of wasters
Well at least these stoppages are more of an inconvenience than a heartbreak! Years ago it used to be an all out strike & run for up to 7 weeks!
copy the English
privatisation only way,
england are 20 years ahead of the game
Lots of cheap labour like you driving bus in england
Nasir why then are the UK wanting to put transport back into public ownership ?
Nasir you might take at the thread above concerning Dublin rents Landlords You don’t want Dublin bus getting into a state like that with a few guys pocketing all the cash as they do in the private market
Privatization could lead to the bus routes being terminated because they are deemed unprofitable, and then you risk alienating a section of people from areas who might depend on the bus services to get to work, but they won’t have access to this service if the buses routes are terminated.
Might be time to look at government as people looked at the church. Do we need it? What’s it for? More people that travel on buses should mean, 1) cheaper fairs 2) better wages 3) better buses. We need to be able to control what we own. They are not kings and lords, they are ordinary people elected by the people to serve the people. Really believe this should be opened up for debate. The ruling class has hit saturation point.
It’s going the right way…company seems it is going to attempt to break the strike…good stuff…
Am generally sympathetic to trade unions in the role of providing employee support & protection from exploitation.
But when it comes to public services, I draw the line at strike action which deprives citizens of essential services, who after all, pay the taxes ,fares, which keep the likes of Dublin Bus viable.
Holding the public hostage in a pay dispute is not acceptable in 21st century employment conditions, & long term, only diminishes trade union membership in the wider economy.
A dose of reality needs to be administered to the management & striking staff in DB, to come to terms sharpish, by a formal notice from the Minister to place the Company into receivership if the strikes persist.
Generally, we need to apply a compulsory dispute resolution process, whereby Labour Court recommendations become determinations.
19th century practices need to be redundant.
Should be all out strike pussy footing around and raise their demands weekly until they recieve a propper wage
Evil bus drivers and rail workers lurch up in their ivory towers scheming and plotting insidious ways to enrich themselves says the serf minded Irish public . Lets have a go at bus drivers as we keep shtum about or betters who take us to the cleaners everyday. One thing this austerity programme has proved to anyone with an ounce of dignity is that Paddy and Mary Joe are truly indoctrinated through glam tv and colonisation to thge mindset of peasant and peasant on peasant hate is on the rise . The only conclusion to be made is . The weak remain weak as they try and pull the strong down with them.
Flew into work this morning! Sitting now having my breakfast. Best roads when buses strike
who got you there, Ryanair?
when buses are back Saturday. Don’t pay.. time for civil disobedience with this lot. for every day of bus strike. don’t pay for three days. hit this rubbish service where it hurts.. don’t Swipe your leap card
scanlanavia yep don’t pay so bus is grounded inspector called for he issues €100 standard fare fine or day in court if not paid with costs. You’re removed from bus so you have to get taxi to work more expense. Brain dead
Give them the money ,sure we’re 12 billion in the black
Wheels on this strike go round and round
Give them what they want. If those unbelievably useless alias drivers got it anyone can
*Luas
Get the boat!!!
I’m surprised that I haven’t heard anyone complaining about the universal social charge. That effects all of our pay packets.
The one going to bray was a bad example to use , she just needs to get the Luas to Connolly and the Dart to Bray.
That adds a lot of extra time. “Just” getting a Luas and then a Dart adds an extra 30mins minimum to what the 145 does, as well as the Dart Station being an added 15min walk to the college in Bray while the 145 drops you right there. That’s an extra 90mins of commuting on a round trip, and I’m being pretty conservative on added time there!
at least they have an option… in the bigger population areas of sw dublin and n/nw Dublin, there is no alternatives.
What are dublin bus drivers earning on average?
For the Dickhed o’Leary privatise everything fans. What happens to all these people who get on buses without leap card credit, not enough cash for fare people, the I left my purse at home people, the no change I’ve only a €20 people. As a state backed company drivers accommodate all excuses. As a Dickhed o’Leary model you will be told to get yourself off the bus or pay the €50 note fare at the bus stop kiosk. And don’t forget when Dickhed o’Leary sees the amount of luggage been brought on €€€€ rolling in his eyes. Think for what you wish for
@Anthony, the state backed company drivers accommodate all excuses? Are you living in cloud cuckoo land?
No Larissa I do it every day I’m working, and it’s the real world. Try go to marks and Spencer pick a nice outfit an tell them at the cash point you’ve no money on your debit card. Let me know how you get on. And please think about your reply this time
@Anthony Whelan, but if you do it, then it is your decision, because I have never been let on the bus for free when I had no credit on my leap card, or only had a note and no change.
How does a loss of €600k a day become €5.5m after a 6 day strike.
Is it true the Train drivers and Bus Eireann are going on strike too in the next few weeks. Let’s see how quick this gets sorted when all 3 are out together. Bring the country to a standstill for a day or two. Good luck to all the bus drivers hope use get what use want.
All this cheap labour from the GREAT EU bring wages down for all. O, how many Irish nationals work in Apple, very few I would say and on short contracts….
Irish government can do things quicker if they drink a few cans of red bull and fly
No running bus service so you have to get up earlier? My heart bleeds.
Bus drives like the rest of us have put up with shite for yrs .it’s not just about pay .if u heard about getting rid of some routes and privating them so buses drivers on the routes will lose their job.s and routes will be put out to tender.i support the bus strikes .there’s so many issues that have be adressed.
Waaaahhhh!!!! :-D
Cry babies… Try commuting for 5 hours a day even when there’s no strike.
“I had to get up earlier”
I hope he’s okay.
I like the bus
I like the bus
God forbid people are inconvenienced for a couple of days, these drivers entire livelihoods depend on this increase. Fully behind the workers
If O Leary owned the buses you be charged for luggage and pensioners would have to pay part payment
Slagging off drivers you just lost your argument, must support Fine Gael
have your say