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SIPTU MEMBERS IN Dublin Bus and Irish Rail are to ballot for industrial action.
A meeting of SIPTU representatives from Dublin Bus, Irish Rail and Bus Eireann was held in Liberty Hall today to discuss the ongoing strike in Bus Eireann.
SIPTU Sector Organiser Willie Noone said, “The meeting also gave a mandate for a ballot for industrial action of union members in Dublin Bus and Irish Rail in sympathy with and in support of their colleagues in Bus Eireann.
They believe that they are next in the firing line if management in Bus Eireann is allowed to force through cuts to wages and changes to conditions of employment of their staff.
A protest is also planned in support of the Bus Eireann workers. It will take place on Wednesday at Leinster House when a meeting of the Oireachtas transport committee is on.
Noone said, “The representatives also agreed that the protest should be supported as it is a means of highlighting the failure of the Minister to take responsibility for the dysfunctional state of the public transport service.
We are encouraging members of the public and of the union, including those who work in the public transport sector and are available, to attend the protest.
‘Survival plan’
Meanwhile, Bus Eireann says it will not be able to fund a voluntary redundancy scheme and will have to consider other measures to prevent the business becoming insolvent if it does not make savings.
A survival plan was presented to the board today which included cost efficiencies to eliminate what it called “grossly inefficient work practices”.
The board said it could not sign off on accounts for 2016, or pass a budget for 2017 in the absence of agreement with staff.
In a statement this evening, the board requested all employees to urgently engage with management through their representatives to agree a survival plan to prevent insolvency and provide a viable future for Bus Éireann.
General Secretary of the NBRU Dermot O’Leary described the statement as “nothing short of bizarre and extraordinary”.
The notion that alternatives to work practice changes and a voluntary severance programme would be entertained, would appear to indicate that the company may go down the road of compulsory redundancies which, if pursued would be unprecedented in the semi-state sector.
“Compulsorily laying off staff will open a completely different and potentially uncontrollable dimension to this dispute, and will present severe difficulties in trying to maintain the already fragile industrial peace across other companies within the CIE Group.”
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Rolls eyes
Well done. Let’s hope Dublin Bus and Iarnroid Eireann come out in support of their colleagues as it’s clear they will be next under the government’s privatisation agenda.
@Benjy Dooley: More like a “lets avoid the taxpayer bailing out yet another inefficient public service” policy.
Wally, do you think Johnny Taxpayer should always have to foot the bill when an inefficient public company gets in trouble?
Shane Ross is showing his true Thatcherite colours now. He backed the Apple tax dodgers and vulture funds and is working enthusiastically to dismantle the public transport system. We don’t anymore bogus Independents always ready to support the elites for their 30 pieces of silver.
@Benjy Dooley: alright wally same shi#e again
A waster like you who sits on the web all day trolling people all doesn’t use public transport because he couldn’t or wouldn’t get a job and contribute to your country
@Tweety McTweeter: You seem happy enough as a taxpayer to subsidise Apple to the tune of € 19 billion. And you’re whinging about a paltry €9 million to keep a vital public service running. Laughable really.
@Benjy Dooley: Imagine the kind of country we’d have you you and your party were running things, Wally. We’d have no Apple (or any other multinationals) and we’d have a severely inflated public service where you’d give in to all demands by the unions. Overpaid public service and an overtaxed private sector. The country would go under within a matter of months.
@owen kirwan: You know as little about me as you do about the system that exploits obedient and ill informed labour units such as yourself.
@Tweety McTweeter: So you are an apologist for the corporate tax dodgers then. You know the Apple tax bill would cover the Bus Eireann deficit for 2000 years or so? Around the same time as you might wake up.
@Tweety McTweeter: P.S Do you remember the € 100 + billion that was used to bail out the private sector banks and did drive the country under?
That was your beloved right wing establishment that’s responsible for that vast theft in case you’d forgotten.
@Benjy Dooley: no Wally, you want the government to step in and cough up so the overpaid drivers can keep their jobs, nothing about social morals. F*ck the lot of them and SIPTU holding the country to ransom, Transdev should never have gave into the Luas drivers because now they’re all jumping on the band wagon. As a taxpayer I’d rather see my well earned money spent on something more productive than these bus w@nkers who think they’re privileged
@John Somers: Did you enjoy seeing vastly more of your well earned tax money being handed over to the bloated bankers?
@Benjy Dooley: Someone should publish Benjy’s real name and how much he actually gets paid to post here.
@Tweety McTweeter: You’ve no problem with NAMA losing 18 billion euro, or the 19 billion Apple owes in tax, or the bail out of banks, or paying the billions failed developers owed. But a public service that is being deliberately destroyed so it can be privatised, and it’s workforce strike because they don’t see why they should pay the bill for deliberate mismanagement, gets you all concerned about the taxpayer.
@Benjy Dooley: you are a complete fool along with all the other people involved in your state sponging party. If the public tax payer has to cover the losses that the company makes we’re going to be paying more tax but you’ll be grand. It won’t effect your dole payments. Try getting a job before you spout your drivel.
What low IQ copy and paste troll you are Wally, now all your alter egos are active, and we “believe” they are different people.You yourself and your alter egos together with your different laptops, phones etc fooling yourself with self thumbs ups. A person who answers a question with another answer is a person with no argument, it means you lost the argument, plain and simple, otherwise you would face the music. Answer the question, should the taxpayer, including the minimum wage tax payer should foot the bill when an inefficient public company gets in trouble, alone with greedy bankers, vulture funds, etc, or are you going to dodge the question by copying and paste something I proudly said before? Very creepy by the way, having trolling files in your troll laptop with old quotes to dodge questions and look like a stalker.
@Benjy Dooley: and what do you propose Wally? Giving more money away after bad? If Ross caves in the unions will only come back next year looking to line their pockets again. Hope he hangs tough and doesn’t give in, it’s about time these outdated unions and greedy drivers saw the clear light of day and got some common sense … think that’ll be a long wait though.
@Benjy Dooley: start sacking them.
Not a penny more of taxpayers money.
Ireland needs better hospitals and better schools. Bus driver pay rises is not good value.
@Benjy Dooley:
Good man Shane.
Stand firm against very well paid greedy bus drivers.
Time to stand up against opportunist unions.
@Benjy Dooley:
Wally, I have never complained to the journal about your trolling and although your comments very often ruin a good debate I will never complain about you and I hope you continue your infantile argument. The damage you are doing to the ‘No Solidarity’ party is great. On a daily basis you spout utter trash which just alienates so many people. No wonder your polling is plummeting and it shouldn’t be too long before you lot follow Renua and the PDs into the history books of Irish politics. Keep up the good work!
@Benjy Dooley: red thumb
@Benjy Dooley:
Keep that cheque book firmly CLOSED, Shane.
I am the first 1 to give out about this shambles of a Government, but I do not want Shanw Ross getting involved. Throwing money at the problem will only result in the issues coming back year after year. This needs to be sorted between managment and staff. If this was the private sector then the Union would work with the Company to ensure no job losses. But because of the public interest, they hold the Country to ransom. Leave them strike.
@DMurph: It’s not the private sector it’s public sector and should not be expected to make a profit but provide a service to the public. Something the minister and the board appear to have forgotten….
@Kerry Blake: Yes!! Why do these companies and our Government believe that they should be running at an operating profit? It’s public transport not a private company! We pay taxes for this shit!
@Kerry Blake: it’s the loss making section of bus Eireann
A part that is in direct competition with the private sector not the public service part of it if a company cannot operate at a profit it has to change it can’t be given public money to to operate at a loss a private company would be shut down
@owen kirwan: It’s not in direct competition with the private sector because as a public sector service it services places private sectors have never heard of.
@Sinead Nemanja Walsh:
Would you like to explain why the drivers should be paid a lot more than in the private sector though?
I’m a little confused about that one myself….
Sure why shouldn’t they receive the level of payment they do. I spent a few years working in the private sector bus system and was treated like a slave. Minimum wage – joke I was paid a set fee and if I over ran (almost always) then hard luck and this could be for couple of hours. Then wash clean and re fuel the bus. Then when I got dermatitis from the diesel I was docked money and eventually let go because I couldn’t re-fuel.
This is a race to the bottom, drivers paid less money doesn’t mean cheaper fares for passengers or commuters it just means more profit for the owners… the only driving these owners do is slave driving.
I for one back the Bus Eireann drivers 100% and fir your information I never worked for the CIE group.
Sack them all immediately.
@Sam: it’s ridiculous. If they want to give up their ridiculously high wage I’ll gladly take it off them
@Sam:
Cant believe Wally’s not here yet. He must have been banned yet again.
Any one else notice the frantic name changing he’s been going through the last couple of days? They should ban him completely, end of.
@Sam: sack them all that will solve the problem, intelligent!
@Alan Cooke: @Alan Cooke: No fan of wally but everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you don’t like seeing it then just mute him.
@Alan Cooke: I would imagine it’s because we now have the “mute” function.
@Sam: this is all down to the luas, I know its a private co but when the CIE group unions saw how it went they decided to jump on the band wagon, they should all be sacked….
@Mick Power:
I do mick, I do. He just keeps morphing into different aliases blurting out the same old rubbish.
He’s like a blow back to Leonid Brezhnev’s era. Groundhog Day.
@Alan Cooke: I actually forgot it wouldn’t work if he keeps getting new accounts!
@Alan Cooke: Why, you write more sh!t that ever Wally, Benjy or whatever name he has to use, ever writes.
@Alan Cooke:
He’s here alright.
So frustrating i can’t give him the red thumb.
If Dublin bus are going on strike, can they leave it till Friday as I already have it booked off. Cheers
Oh hell no. No. This is going too far. What more do they want?
@Adrian Matthews: who? The overpaid greedy drivers?
@Adrian Matthews: What more? They’re striking to prevent their wages being massively cut.
@Benjy Dooley: and services to rural Ireland being cut again….
@Benjy Dooley: What about the 80% pay rise they got from late 90s and benchmarking? They only taken 12% off that. Isn’t a wage better than the social which is where most of these short sighted idiots are heading. The drivers can’t see the wood from the trees and if hopefully BI is closed, the dimwits in SIPTU HQ won’t worry too much, they’ll still have their jobs looking for other places to shaft the tax payers for more dough.
@Adrian Matthews: To protect a public service from being privatised.And not to be landed with the bill for deliberate mismanagement.
That the whole public transport system workers are coming out on strike is a move for the better. I hope the Luas workers join them.
I like to see a general strike from the whole transport sector, it’s been run into the ground since the crash but the cost of living keeps rising, the wage slashing hasn’t benefitted anyone and this debacle from Bus Eireann wouldn’t be of any benefit to the public either if they got away with it.
We’d want to be careful, we’re being sleepwalked into a situation where we’ll have no public services. We already have almost mandatory health insurance (unless you want to go on our famous waiting lists), a water company with a privatisation agenda, and a government who believe the private sector holds all the answers. It’s a mean, nasty little country we’re headed towards.
@Lurfic:
I could not agree more with you, Fine Gael answer to everything, privatise, zero contracts and minimum wage is their mantra. Pity they don’t practise what they preach !
@Lurfic:
How about public services where people doing 5.5 hours work a day don’t get paid like they’re working 9.5 hours.
@Lurfic: you got a point. Unions aren’t helping here either. In this case they are likely hastening the privatisation of public transport. I don’t think transport should be run for profit but I do think it needs to be self sustaining.
@Fred Jensen: how about a society where we’re not constantly begrudging anybody an easier life than we perceive ourselves to have? The end result of what you’re saying is a race to the bottom in terms of wages, living standards etc in the name of “efficiency”. That only suits one cohort of people; those that make money from increased privatisation and lower wages. Our current governments (globally, not just in Ireland) are using the age old tactic of divide and conquer. People are too busy squabbling among themselves about petty grievances to notice the elephant in the room. We’re all being screwed.
@sue: yes Sue, it needs to be self sustaining, but with a subsidy from the state to allow it to cater to those that it doesn’t make economic sense to cater to. Did you know the state subsidy for free travel for pensioners only covers 40% of the actual cost of the journey? It’s the oldest trick in the privatisation playbook: under fund the service until it can’t function, and then privatise it because it’s dysfunctional. The same thing is happening in water and in health.
@Lurfic:
Complaining about public sector being paid without working is not “begrudgery”. It’s basic fairness.
@Lurfic: no, didn’t know that. But I still think the issue goes deeper than that. There are many routes that are always packed. On the other hand I have also seen town buses take off the moment the train pulls in, or the moment someone turns the corner and tries to get on. I do think the efficiency of the company needs to be addressed
@Fred Jensen: we all knew the perks and drawbacks of public v private when we started out. I’m in the private sector. Sometimes I think “those lucky public sector *******”, but then I remember I chose the private sector because I want career flexibility and higher potential earnings. I’m sure public sector workers are jealous of me sometimes, but then they remember they have a moderately well paid, relatively stress free permanent job. You take the good with the bad. If you’re unhappy, do something about it.
@sue: no doubt about it. I’m of the opinion that we should go into these debates with our eyes open, and I worry that many people can’t see the wood for the trees. Unfortunately, these people tend to shout loudest.
@Lurfic: agreed
@David Mc Nally:
how about not paying drivers in the public sector more than drivers in the private sector. That ok with you?
@Fred Jensen: It is when it’s your agenda Fred. You think all workers should return to Victorian conditions. So do neoliberal governments and many employers.
It’s not going to happen. No matter how much you want it to.
@Fred Jensen: Detail your assumption of only working 5.5 hours a day, I want to destroy it.
@Catherine Mc:
Yeah, right, Catherine. FF did such a better job in 2008, the unions want to go back, having never learned the lessons of economic reality.
@Buster VL:
Economic reality for most is minimum pay, zero hour contracts, no prospects for better employment possibilities, that is with a degree, can’t afford a car to travel, certainly can’t afford to emigrate. Fine Gael trade mark, hospitality industry enjoying 9℅ vat rate, staff treated like shite, need I go on ?
I absolutely support them all the way. Certain sectors are being annihilated.
We have trainee pilots flying passengers and they are not getting paid. Not getting paid little. Actually NOT getting paid.
Nobody believes it though or wants to believe it. The Minister for transport runs away from it saying transport has nothing to do with me.
@Tom Burke: Same with the teachers! Not getting paid for two years of their work placement in schools! Correcting tests, teaching classes, lesson plans, countless essays, inspections and no pay at all! Basically free teachers!
@Tom Burke: canyou please provide an example of this airline? Only fully qualified pilots with a commercial license are allowed fly and both Ryanair and Aer Lingus for example pay for both.
@Tom Burke: during training you fly 0 passengers.
@Darragh McGee: I completely agree Darragh. It’s disgraceful.
We also have a minimum wage in this country but it’s circumvented by bogus self employed schemes.
I can’t hire somebody to work for me for €5 / hour. It’s against the law.
However, a self employed painter can give me a price to paint my house for only €100.
As he’s self employed I’m not breaking the law as in the free market anybody can set their price.
Now what if an employer can ‘hire’ somebody as a full time contractor they can pay below the minimum wage.
This government sit back and do nothing about this exploitation.
A teacher, a nurse a pilot get screwed yet the police chief can stagger from one failure to another and never take responsibility.
@Tom Burke: can you tell us who this airline is?
@eoin_fitz: Eoin.
I respectfully suggest you brush up on the subject matter. Do you think there are passenger jets flying around the skies at €20k an hour carrying no passengers?
Of course they carry passengers while training.
@Tom Burke: I have quite an extensive knowledge in the subject since I will be becoming a pilot in the future.
It is against aviation law for a pilot without a commercial license to carry passengers. They may fly a small single propeller cessana are completion of the PPL training.
Usually training for various forms of flight ( wether, different aircraft etc) is conducted in a flight simulator in a building.
Please do not spread lies about the aviation industry as it is clear you do not have an extensive knowledge on the matter.
@Tom Burke: name an airline!
@Tom Burke: Look up the Atlantic flight training website you mornon
@eoin_fitz: he has zero knowledge
@Alan Brogan: I don’t know why I bothered arguing with such a moron haha
@eoin_fitz: Eoin.
You absolutely have no idea what you’re talking about. I suggest you study your subject matter a little bit more. You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.
@Tom Burke: You need a private pilots license to even start training. You then do some training on a cessena and a piper Twin PA34 + the flight simulator.
You then do your exam on a Piper Seneca.
You also have to have 170 hours as a pilot in command on a regular plane before you can start training so get your facts straight.
@Tom Burke: we know you hate Ryanair. You were obviously sacked or couldn’t get a job there in the 1st place, but telling lies and then failing to back up your comments is unbecoming. You lied.
@Tom Burke:
What’s the name of that painter you referred to.
My house could do with tarting up.
Thanks Tom, €100 to paint the house, is that inside and outside?
@Tom Burke:sorry tom but what has flying passengers to do with the bus`s ?
@Peter donnelly: public transport, zero hour contracts etc.
@Alan Brogan: who mentioned ryanair?
I didn’t.
@Darragh McGee: They’ll be rewarded in heaven. Oh wait, sorry, scratch that. They will be rewarded with a nice big pension, a fantastically lengthy schedule of fully paid holidays, incremental pay to all and the shortest working day known to man. Apart from that, yeah, they have it tough…. Zzzzzzz
@Bewarethebeardz: Management have it easy.
@Bewarethebeardz: Well, pensions were cut during the recession, not all teachers get paid during the summer, especially the new employees. It depends on the contract the schools provide. Working day doesn’t end the minute they leave the building, they have to go home, correct copy’s, correct tests, make tests, make plans for their next classes, all which have to be recorded for when inspectors pop up in schools to visit.
@eoin_fitz: oh oh someone made a silly statement and is getting called out on it. Fair play Eoin I’m also pretty interested. Maybe Ryanair are doing job bridge.
@Tom Burke: that’s because you seem afraid to name any airline with pilots not getting paid.
@Tom Burke: starting to feel like this company may not exist. To carry passengers you at least need a PPL but you are limited to the craft you can fly which in turn limits the number of passengers you can carry, you can also not charge a fare.
Now with a CPL you could potentially hour built if you are try to get a type rating say a member of Ryanair moving from Boeing to Airbus you may not have a full type rating but you are a fully trained commercial pilot who all get payed, some better than others depending on position, experience or airline. Now does this happen in other countries? It wouldn’t surprise me does it happen here? Certainly not that I or basically anyone knows of.
Train drivers earn up to 43k a year !! What more do they want just trying to bring the whole country to a standstill
@Pa Ta: thats Luas, Irish Rail drivers up to 55,000….
@Paul:
Actually they’re on about €70k with overtime. Seriously, what an absolute joke.
@Fred Jensen: That’s insane !! , I work in the tech sector and earn nowhere near that
! I also rely on Irish rail to get to work Every day and im fairly pissed off the jump on the bus Eireann website and try to hold everyone hostage.
I earn around 30k and if I downed tools looking for an increase id be shown the door
@Fred Jensen: fred they don’t some of longest may hit 60,000 but most would be around 48-52,000.
There is no overtime in IE or Sunday pay in IE anymore.
Sunday pay shouldn’t be a thing!! It’s not the 1930s in Ireland. I work for a salary, if I work a weekend I don’t get paid or overtime. I might get to take a Monday off or part of a day in lieu. But working a Sunday rather than a Monday does not entitle me to extra pay, nor would I expect it. Public/semi-state companies have an embedded sense of entitlement that cannot be shaken. Solution (if you can call it that) will be to open the public cheque book again.
@Fred Jensen: I heard train drivers were earning up 80k a year when they do over time seriously now that’s some Joke! And that’s not all savage pensions and don’t get me started about the holidays these guys get in the year all payed for by the company on the tax payers backs…. such a joke
@Paddy: we’d know a lot more about Govt policy if we could establish whether the Contracural Fines incurred by the Luas operator for non provision of services were ever paid or even asked for.
@Larry Fitzwell: If you work for nothing you’ll never be idle.
@Dave, trust me Dave I don’t work for nothing. I’m quite well looked after because of attitude towards work – summarized by my comment above – which you wasted no time in giving an entitled little response.
There’s clearly a hard core group of Trotskyists in the NBRU pushing this destructive path. They need to be rounded up and dealth with.
@Fred Jensen: Spoken like a true blueshirt.
Bowing to luas drivers demands was only ever going to lead to this. Let Bus Éireann go bankrupt and see how many of them find a job driving a bus.
@Max Johnson Powers: yes it opened the floodgates and then the gardai and then the government 5k rise
Setting a precedent for compulsory redundancies in the semi state would be most welcome development!
I don’t think workers should be absolutely rode, but at the same time, when a company is losing massive amounts of money, to not look at the wage bill and work practices would be madness.
Overtime shouldn’t be part of core pay – its a bonus. If drivers have benefitted from that to supplement basic pay for years, good for them, but i think it’s unreasonable to demand continued overtime, all the time.
Time to let them strike. And break the transport unions.
If they want a show of solidarity, let the traveling public unite and show them that their wage is fair and high compared to the people they transport. Asking Ross to show up with the public cheque book to subsidise their wages is a step to far.
@Noel Hogan: Let the public do the workers job so. The travelling public will lose out eventually when the public service is privatised, and where routes are deemed unprofitable, the taxpayer will be subsidising private operators. There will be a shortage of buses at non peak times. As in all things privatised, service will be worse and prices will be higher.
We’ll hear a different whinge from you and the rest of the anti worker blueshirts then.
@Dave Doyle: a public job is a job for life, with a guaranteed comfortable retirement. Today in Ireland, which is (has to be) a competitive European market place in a global market, such guarantees are a thing of the past.
The cost of living is the main concern for most working people. A break in the rise of the cash it takes to live, just for 1 year, would be welcomed by most of the population.
Let our taxes work without subsidising already good wages
And stop the rise in punter transport ticket prices
@Dave Doyle:
The private bus operators offer a muck better service
@Buster VL:
Yep, ” a muck service” !
I was trying to keep an open mind, wondering if the unions maybe have a better cost savings plan but this is taking it too far. Enough is enough. Should the tax payer also start bailing out failing private companies? There are union workers involved as well after all!
@sue: you mean like banks?
@Robert Rusk: fair point, should the tax payer start bailing out failing private companies… Again?
@sue: yes. In exchange for reform.
I Back bus eireann workers all the way…have to stop companies and govt using excuses to attack their workers terms and conditions…the reason bus eireann is in a hole is due to govt policy on free travel and selling off of the best routes…ill agree with privatising routes when i see a private company running a bus to the beara pennisula on a wet tuesday morning in november…it will never happen..even though we are subsidising drivers in priv comp through FIS..
@Cally: if the unprofitable routes are bundled together with profitable ones, and the bundles are put out to tender, it will happen
@_doesnotcompute: Indeed its called bus eireann currently…
This won’t fly atall. .where a gang of people that refuse to see reality can bring a country to a halt
We elected a government, so far all we hear is a certain minister will not intervene in the dispute, I would have thought that this would be par for the course, under the circumstances, it is our national transport we are talking about !
@Catherine Mc:
Nope. that’s what the unions want. More taxpayer money.
@Fred Jensen:
The subsidy was cut by government to a pittance some years ago, as well as wages, enough is enough, no TD is in want at the moment !
@Catherine Mc:
Cut their overtime payments instead.
@Fred Jensen:
To be honest with you, I reckon there is far more to this than meets the eye, where I live the bus is always packed, to and from Dublin, government needs to wake up and for once put Irish citizens first.
@Catherine Mc: I don’t think the minister should get involved though as we will be back at the same junction next year by just throwing money at it.
@sue:
What do you suggest ? When there is stalemate surely someone should be ready to involve.
@Catherine Mc: yes, but not by throwing more money at it which is what would usually happens.
@Catherine Mc: also to be honest I always thought it’s the labour relations committee job
@Fred Jensen: Taxpayer money??? You don’t give a flying about the “taxpayer” if you did you’ld be up in arms at NAMA losing 18 billion, or Apple owing 19 billion, or vulture funds paying little of no tax on massive profits.
But dare a worker raise his head, and your outrage has you frothing at the mouth.
@Catherine Mc:
After all, it’s taxpayers hard earned we are talking about. You know, the ones who depend on a reliable public transport system to get to work..
Question.
What represents the better investment for our children?
1. A new hospital.?
2. More money for bus drivers?
@Buster VL:
Both, government has plenty money to squander when it suits them eg. Irish Water, bus drivers also pay their taxes, I would love to see CIE make their accounts public, wouldn’t surprise me if it was top heavy similar to HSE.
Sack the lot of them, bring in contract workers they’ll appreciate the jobs, no sympathy for them at all, ZERO !!!!
No one wants to see workers lose their jobs but the unions seriously need to cop on to themselves on this one. I as rural tax payer object to my hard earned cash being thrown into a company who’s losses are increasing year by year to a stage where now the company is almost insolvent. There is inevitable pain going to be felt here & the company, the workers & unions either have to engage in constructive ways of saving the jobs or we simply let the company become insolvent & close it down. The unions are way out of line by trying to bring in Dublin bus & CIE workers into this dispute they have received their demands. If this was a private company they would go under but the unions seem to think that the hard pushed tax payer is there to bail them out at every whim. Enough is enough.
@Ciaran Kehoe: You do understand this is a public company that services locations a private company would not be seen in because there is no profit to be made?
Bus Eireann drivers should only get paid for hours that they actually work.
All these overtime hours they do not actually work should be cut to zero, taxpayers should not be funding that.
I want my taxes spent funding the health service and education, not overpaid SIPTU members who terrorise the public to support their inflated salaries and benefits.
@John Sheehy: Ah those would be workers whose taxes go towards funding the health service and education?
Dublin bus just had a strike. They need to cop on to themselves
What took the Union so long to do this action. This should have been in place before Bus Eireann went out on strike.
@Austin Mooney: red thumb
Charming. Just Effing charming…
No problems bailing out the banksters who pull their numbers from Mr Drumm’s arschehole. But screw the peons and proles who rely on public transport especially the rural dwellers and the elderly.
Shows the priorities of this State of Cowardice Inhumanity and Rapine very eloquently.
Next in line really, both unions done away with overtime/Sunday premium pay at Irish Rail a few years ago…..
Race to the bottom continues.
@Kerry Blake
I couldn’t agree more will you, people seem to forget it is not a private company it is a service provider for the public.It is not making money because they sold of their most profitable routes to the private sector. Its sickening considering all the money Rte is losing and no mention of wage reductions in their state company.
@Paul Mc: RTE are laying off 300 employees. Don’t get me wrong, they are effectively public sector so will get huge pay-offs and their gold plated pensions but at least RTE have conceded that staff have to go. Meanwhile the NBRU bury their heads in the sand and ask for a taxpayer bailout.
@Sean @114: In fairness Bus Eireann provide a country wide service unlike RTE….
@Paul Mc: Sold their most profitable routes? You’re just throwing some generic mumble jumble to take part? People,the NTA is put routes out for tender. Private companies snapped a lot of them up. This is the knock on effect.
DB staff will never get back what they lost the last time, can’t see this happening, this is the unions trying to get a public uproar so Ross will start to move, but it will back fire. And it’s only a ballot.
@Gavin Redmond:
The state paid them 33.7 million to provide the public service obligation in 2015. Looks to me like they need to get out of the routes with heavy competition from private sector who pay less in wages and concentrate on core public service routes. It means a smaller service with fewer staff but surely with natural wastage and a decent early retirement scheme they can prevent a total collapse and loss of many jobs? The state also gave them 50 million for new buses in 2014/2015 so how much more money can they really look for from the taxpayer particularly when their payroll is 130m a year between 2,500 workers.
It won’t stop here a big game plan is in place for privatisation by the government and EU, what company buys a new fleet in the two years leading up to this when both years where no profit , the government has pre chosen semi state and state agencies it is going to privatise, after the bailout we had China looking to buy the the esb but was stopped by a vote in the esb workers think they just ended up with a license for wind and water farms, an post was looked at to be sold to dhl ended up being business partners they sold off nearly every natural resource we have to save banks and bond holders and now we have no voice in our own government we voted kenny out he got back threw a back door now he won’t leave and cause we pay so much to the bailout we have a 2nd world health care transport water systems which they think we can just charge the people to maintain and a property bubble growing again that will make us a third world country if it pops with nothing left to sell off
@Derek Trumper: let’s not forget that while the money was there during the boom nobody in our government thought it might be worthwhile investing in health care, schools and transport then. Those services were already lacking before the recession
The end of the CIE
@Daithi Gazeley: Thank the Gods
@_doesnotcompute: I assume you drive to work unlike many workers who depend on Bus Eireann services to get to their place of work?
@_doesnotcompute: Will you still be thanking them when you’re expected to subsidise private operators.
Ah would they ever stop, bloody ridiculous at this stage. Understanding and compassi
@William Clay: compassion only goes so far
Sure the taxpayer will just cover all their high paying jobs, no bother. We like getting f*cked it appears, who’s next in line? Government does nothing “f*cking Fine Gael”, government increases taxes to bail out failing public business “f*cking Fine Gael”. Only real losers here are the general public, definitely not the bus eireann staff.
@Andrew Mac Mahon: if you pay tax you are covering the private bus companies drivers wages as well through FIS as they are paid so poorly…
@Cally: i know and they want/need even more to cover loses… so we pay more…. not sure what your point is
@Andrew Mac Mahon: not this time. The minister is holding firm and refusing to bail them out this time.
@Cally: again that’s CRAP
No they don’t all get FIS that’s just more lies @cally
I don’t know why people are calling to sack the BE drivers. Wait a week or 2 and the company will go under. Let’s see how striking for a company that doesn’t exist works out.
i heard that the Dublin bus driver want nothing to do with this strike as bus eireann didnt support them, where is our great leader kenny the country is messed up we have garda who cant count, HSE that couldn’t run a bath, a government who are more interested in a plastic paddy in Egypt, and now transport workers who complain that they cant afford a cut in pay well join the club i like most worker in this county since 2008 have been screwed by the bank and government!!
P45,s all round. Greedy gits. Want more money? Should have worked at school then and gone to 3rd level. Suck it up or retrain you bunch of wasters
@Phil Keenan: you english speak good
@Phil Keenan: Really smart Phil, who will drive the buses then? how are you going to attract new entrants? who will pay to get qualified when only a pittance is offered for reward? Do you ever look beyond what’s in front of you?
@Revolting Peasant: can’t wait for driverless buses
@Phil Keenan: Driverless busses are never going to happen for a plethora of reasons all of which you lack the vision to see.
More siptu populism. Just attempting to appear militant to drivers in CIE in order to try recruit members because they’re a hairs breath from bankruptcy. The info in the registration of friendly societies doesn’t lie. This is just rhetoric. The 1990′s industrial relations act makes this illegal. There will be no ballot. Period.
Sack them all & re advertise the positions & sign contracts….
Invest!
HERE WE GO AGAIN .they already got pay rises isnt it time public sector got something
It’s lovely that all the people who can drive or who will not be left stranded by an all-out bus and train strike, have come out in support of it.
Keep that cheque book firmly CLOSED, Shane.
My username says what so many are thinking…
I wonder which way this will go
have your say