Support the workers against the bullying bosses at Dublin Bus

national | worker & community struggles and protests | feature

Wednesday November 14, 2007 23:41

by D. Freeman - WSM

BEWARE Bullying Bosses abound!
STAND UP for the STRIKING Bus Workers.

As the grey misty rain fell throughout the day – you truly knew it was winter. The fact that over 300 bus workers were gathered in this dog of an afternoon outside Dublin Bus HQ would indicate that we all have entered the season of discontent.

If you can ascertain the facts, and that is not an easy thing to do if you are dependent on RTE-Pravda coverage, you know immediately that management are bullying the workers, undermining their working conditions, and attempting to create a two-tier workforce, with the introduction of longer hours on new routes.

Dublin bus management wants to introduce two new routes, the 4a and the 128, and on these routes they want some of the drivers to start their shifts, take their breaks, and finish in the city centre. The issue here is that if you are a driver, you could start as early as 5AM; you drive to the depot, park your car there, catch the bus into town and start your shift in the city centre. Then when your shift ends you have to make your own way back across town to Harristown depot (11km from city centre) near the airport, before you can return home.

This considerably lengthens the working day. Drivers maintain that as much as ten hours a week could be added onto their working day. Back in 2004, the National Bus and Rail Union and SIPTU believed that they had reached an agreement that with Dublin Bus management that all routes operating from Harristown depot would have their starts, breaks and finishes at the depot. The agreement was not written and so the company now argues that it doesn’t exist.

A woman driver showed up on Monday morning and reported for work. She refused to do a new route which started in town. She was suspended immediately. The management of Dublin Bus wanted a fight. The bus workers have maintained all along that if management lift the suspension, and if they stick to the original agreement, they will go back to work. Effectively, this has become a lock out.

Would you ask someone to work two hours longer a day, for no extra pay?
The company made profit of €4M in 2006, one of €2M in 2005. No doubt they will have another good year in 2007. But the over riding concern of management is to introduce a two-tier workforce, as they are only asking new workers to work on the disputed routes. What this is really about is the erosion of working conditions and the first steps in a battle to privatise another company.

Showing a profit, there is nothing like it to attract the interests of those free market people who want to ‘float it’. A few rich people get a lot richer and all this is done at a cost to the service and to the workers. As far as workers’ conditions go, they are jettisoned in front of the steamroller named ‘increased profits and greater efficiency’.

This sad scene has been played out before in the UK, where privatisation has lead to poorer wages for the bus drivers, and a worsening of working conditions. Also, you get competition over profitable routes, and others are abandoned as uneconomical.

I think that what we are seeing here is the inevitable place that partnership gets you to. The bosses get very comfortable and think that the laws of the land, plus the state media, plus the Labour Court, plus the government, are all on their side and they can simply decree that you should work longer, and they expect it to happen.

The danger is that it will unless we show our support now. We have a chance to stop this in its tracks. This is a case where the bullying bosses think they can push the workers around; and create a two-tier workforce. It should not be allowed. You know the facts, and you should spread the word that now is the time for solidarity with the men and women of Harristown.

D. Freeman on behalf of the WSM

image from http://cuffestreet.blogspot.com/2007/11/bus-strike-60000-stuck-in-rain.html

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Comments (11 of 11)

picket phote

by x - x sq

Thu Nov 15, 2007 00:49

bus picket

Bus

by www

Thu Nov 15, 2007 09:03

Most of the drivers can start AND finish in the city centre, and don't need to go to the depot. Why don't they do that? Because they want to park their car for free in a depot car park space paid for by the taxpayer!

Car parking?

by ...

Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:18

Mail rail

by D_D

Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:05

The coverage of the strike in yesterday's Irish Daily Mail was unadulterated red-baiting. Taking its prompt from RTE's 'Morning Ireland' it published a demonising piece firmly in the tradition of the vicious verbal assaults by Independent Newspapers on Brendan Ogle during the ILDA strike and on the TEAM Aer Lingus stewards ("Aerheads") during their strike.

Dublin Bus Workers to be stabbed in the back yet again by the 'Union' bureaucrats?

by Pro Bus Strike Passenger

Fri Nov 16, 2007 15:28

Another Sell-Out on the way?
Fair play to the striking Dublin Busworkers at Harristown for taking a stand against further attacks on their working conditions! They need to be supported 100%! I just have a sickening sense so overpowering that it’s sickening that the Busworkers are going to be stabbed in the back yet again by the ‘Unions’ especially SIPTU! You can hear and see the elation, joy and relief in the voice of Willie Noone, SIPTU’s Dublin Bus Rep, that he might be able to stitch yet another sell-out on the Busworkers now that, that poxy Labour Court (No friend of the Workers!) has decided that there is sufficient common ground (Sell-Out!) to invite both sides back to talks this weekend.
Am I right in suspecting that another Sell-Out of even greater magnitude is about to be attempted to be foisted on the Busworkers? If such a Sell-Out is tried to be forced onto the Busworkers, I believe, and indeed hope that the Busworkers will strongly resist this, even if means going Unofficial! Indeed, they should spread the dispute to the other 6 Dublin Bus Garages, regardless of what the ‘Unions’ say or threaten. This is the only way to bring this Dispute to a speedy resolution on terms that won’t attack the drivers working conditions. From talking to Bus Drivers who I know, both in Harristown and elsewhere, the Drivers in Harristown will get almost unanimous support if they spread the Dispute by placing pickets on the other 6 Dublin Bus Garages, even if they are Unofficial.

It's time and money.

by Eggball

Fri Nov 16, 2007 19:59

Yeah, that must be it, the bus workers are out on strike and risking it over car parking! The mind boggles. And the taxpayer reference? The depot and the car park spaces will still exist regardless, what's your point? Such a strange and weak argument.

Whoever you are who wrote this (for you don't give a name or handle), try and comprehend, it's about car parking only in as much as parking a car in Dublin costs money. REAL money, an average of about €2.70 per hour. On a complete shift, that would mean a driver would have to pay somewhere between €25 and €30 per DAY out of his own pocket to park his car in town. In the alternative, he would have to spend an extra hour to an hour and a half effectively at work if he parked his car in Harristown. Nobody in their right mind is going to do either without a battle. If you were willing to do such a thing I'd consider you a fool. Why should I be one?

It is unfortunate that so many people today are so miserable with their lives, so depressed and self-loathing about the treadmill they find themselves on daily that their only thought is to drag down those who are still fighting for their rights and dignity, rather than aspiring to the same dignity for themselves. Is this what you teach your children? If so, small wonder this country has become what it's become.

Eggball

Sat Nov 17, 2007 15:06

Sorry, that was sarcasm on my part directed at www. I totally support you guys and girls 110%. I know it's time and money but it's also alot more than just that, it's a change in work conditions, it's a struggle against management, it's changes that if not stopped here will spread, etc. It was more just the small knock on effects of all this are being portrayed in the media as what it's about. If you were to believe RTE and mainstream newspapers, you'd think it was over where you take your lunch breaks and where you park your car. It blurs/conflates/confuses the issues. And I felt this was an attitude www was repeating but I should have been a bit more mature in my response. Apologies and solidarity!

Stop punishing me then!

by Worker

Sat Nov 17, 2007 16:20

"It is unfortunate that so many people today are so miserable with their lives, so depressed and self-loathing about the treadmill they find themselves on daily that their only thought is to drag down those who are still fighting for their rights and dignity, rather than aspiring to the same dignity for themselves."

I don't own a car so I depend on the buses to get me to work in the morning.
I'm not miserable or depressed or full of self-loathing.
I enjoy working and I love living in Dublin.
Fair play if you want your rights and dignity from Dublin Bus but why punish ordinary guys like me?

Are the rest of us just "collatoral damage" or what?

Great To See

by Damien

Sun Nov 18, 2007 23:27

Great to see the drivers have seen sense, and abondoned this shamefull act. Looking forward to seeing them operate the new routes tomorrow

Dreadful article

by Bill H

Sat Dec 01, 2007 17:42

Have the WSM lost all capacity to use rational evidence to support their arguments? Although i support the bus workers, this article covers none of the issues at hand. Its full of the same old boring sound bites.

Its the same old 'bosses' this, 'bosses' that bullshit. Seriously lads, your propaganda is worse than the SWP these days, not to mention your aggressive recruitment strategies.

You guys should set up a stall at Charlies Checkpoint.

Support the workers?

by JC

Mon Dec 03, 2007 14:02

I don't support the workers, I support the recommendations of the Labour Court and they should too. The people of Dublin are sick of their beal bocht claptrap. If they don't like the new conditions, they can go get a job in the private sector and let other, more willing, workers take up these lucrative jobs.

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Support the workers against the bullying bosses at Dublin Bus

Comments (11 of 11)