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TRADE UNIONS TAKING part in the strike at Bus Éireann staged a defiant protest outside the gates of the Dáil this afternoon. Speakers repeatedly called on Shane Ross to take action to end the bitter dispute at the transport operator.
The protest – which was attended by around 400 to 500 people, and which organisers said was put together at short notice – was timed to coincide with the Transport Minister’s testimony to an Oireachtas committee today.
Ross has repeatedly said he won’t intervene in the dispute. Speaking today he said he was keen to see the crisis resolved but that he would “not be dictating to management and unions about their internal issues”.
Uniformed Irish Rail and Dublin Bus workers also attended this afternoon’s march and protest, which made its way from Parnell Square to Kildare Street, where speeches were staged shortly before lunchtime.
Dermot O’Leary of the NBRU said it was curious that Ross claimed to be unable to get involved in the dispute – noting that he had seen fit to involve himself with a number of causes that had nothing to do with his transport portfolio, including judicial appointments and the campaign to reopen Stepaside Garda Station, which is located in his south Dublin constituency.
“He certainly fulfilled his step aside in terms of being Minister for Transport,” O’Leary said, to cheers.
O’Leary said that he expected “nothing more” from Ross, or “the Blueshirts”.
He went on to call out other members of Ross’s Independent Alliance grouping, including John Halligan, Finian McGrath, Sean Canney and Kevin Boxer Moran.
“Hang your heads in shame,” O’Leary said.
The strike centres on a dispute between workers and management at the semi-State company, with the latter claiming that its worsening financial situation requires cuts and changes to employee contracts.
Bus Éireann told employees last week that it would introduce these cost-saving measures without agreement, and unions announced an all-out strike which began at midnight on Thursday last.
Steve McKelvey, chairman of the Cork branch of the NBRU, said he was disappointed Shane Ross hadn’t come out to address drivers today.
“It will only be resolved when there’s talks [...] but nobody seems to want to talk,” he told TheJournal.ie.
The NBRU and other unions would resist any attempts to try and reinvent the company as a “low cost operation,” McKelvey said.
Workers were not prepared to “give away,” the progress they had made in the last number of decades, he insisted.
There had been concerns there would be disruption to Dublin Bus and to rail services today, if union members decided to attend the Kildare Street protest.
Services were running as normal however – although there were diversions to buses in Dublin due to the march taking place.
Dublin Bus and Irish Rail workers are set to be balloted next week for industrial action – part of a solidarity move.
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What on earth are “foreigners” doing over there?
Embassy, big business. Pakistan has a beautiful countryside but I doubt they get much tourism from the west, possibly other parts of Asia and middle east?
The attack was in Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
Oops, just embassies then
A resurgent Taliban, well done Obama.
ISIS , well done GW Bush / Joe MacCarthaigh
How GW Bush Funded the Taliban
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/how-washington-funded-taliban
“Dingle Holiday– @dingleholiday When travelling to Ireland you have to experience the wonders which the Dingle Penninsula has to offer Dingle, Co Kerry, Ireland”
When travelling to America you have to experience the horrors like Joe MacCarthaigh (shy anon Republican) offers the visitor .. He is not a typical American .. Praise the Lord
1. The Golden Crescent trade in opiates constitutes, at present, the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy. The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year. Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics production in Afghanistan has increased more than 35 times. In 2009, opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in 2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan. According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion annually. In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resulting from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion
http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/news/cia.drug.html
See also :
NY Times: Afghan opium kingpin on cia payroll
NY Times Opium from Afghanastan
No Dingle he’s not, i dont consider people human if they can let Muslims kill with no punishment. And if you are American. I would ask you to get out of my Country thank you.
Would anyone want to go for a Dingle Holiday after reading the “stuff” posted on here? They’d probably rather go to Kabul.
Ah the taliban, the result of Russian, British and American foreign policy failures.
You forgot Pakistan and Islam.
The Americans kick-started the Taliban but Pakistan made it what it’s become, and now it’s biting them on the arse.
Afghanistan has been a basket case since before America existed.
Ted. Karma and i believe anyone who goes out to deliberately hurt maim another human being will get it ten fold.
Hope the lesbian and gay community in Afghanistan are safe and well and they were not hurt in this atrocity.
stupid Troll baiting comment
Homophobic is what you are dingle.
Wish to meet Taliban to ask why were they killing for & do we really believe their Allah approves their murderous campaign? Taliban are nothing but fcuking sick animals!
That’s a bit harsh on sick animals
Thosj AGREE They are animals and i am insulting those creatures.
They are great for killing Women and Children they feel big strong.
I wish those walking post boxes would stand up for their children they can still have their religion. Modern of course. Because in the end they will be stopped.
You really want be be a foreigner with a death wish to end up there. Since the time of the British, then the Russians and now Americans the Afghans have given them all the same “welcome” with a bang.
RIP in peace
ATM machine.
PIN number
Omg God
have your say