Dublin Bus
Bus workers action fully justified

Socialist Party leaflet - Available as a PDF here

On RTE’s Morning Ireland this morning, Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd outlined the issues that is at the heart of this dispute – workers conditions and privatisation. Fianna Fail, the PDs, the Greens and Fine Gael support giving profitable bus routes to private multinationals transport companies.

They want to introduce the "race to the bottom" in the area of public transport. They all want private companies operating extensively in Dublin, then they they believe they could force Dublin Bus workers to accept lower wages and poorer working conditions.

SIPTU and the NBRU should outline to the general public their proposals for how the two new routes can be operated without meaning drivers having to spend up to 12 hours away from home just to work a six hour shift. This will expose this baseless attack by Dublin Bus management and put them under further pressure to abandon their plans.

Bus drivers at Harristown cannot have any faith in the Labour Court to resolve this dispute in their favour. The Labour Court has already stated that it supports Dublin Bus management’s changes. SIPTU and NBRU members should reject any calls to lift the pickets and return to work in order to allow negotiations to take place, unless the company re-instates the suspended driver and categorically states that it no longer plans to introduce the disputed working conditions on the two new routes.

A suspension of the strike action under any other conditions will be dangerous for the drivers. The National Implementation Body, assisted by the leadership of SIPTU and ICTU sold out the Irish Ferries workers. The role of the Labour Court is to end industrial disputes and supposedly deliver a "win, win" situation for both parties. But that would involve Dublin Bus drivers making compromises to the company’s’ agenda which will open the door to further attacks on working conditions for drivers throughout the whole of Dublin Bus.

There is widespread support amongst all Dublin Bus drivers for the stand taken by their colleagues in Harristown. This support should be utilised to force Dublin Bus management to back off. Solidarity action by all Dublin Bus drivers can force management into a corner and stop them implementing their "race to the bottom" agenda.

Aer Lingus workers are planning to take industrial action next week because privatisation has meant a full on assault by management on the workers wages and working conditions. Aer Lingus management is trying to implement a wage cut of up to €5,000 a year. This type of draconian attack will face Dublin Bus drivers down the line if management get away with their plans at Harristown and if the government is allowed to introduce widespread franchising of routes to private operators.

Some senior union officials have said that Dublin Bus workers have nothing to fear from competition. This is not true. The introduction of private operators will guarantee a major attack on the wages and conditions of Dublin Bus workers, as the company tries to lower its costs to compete with non-union, low paying private operators.

FOR SOLIDARITY WITH HARRISTOWN BUS DRIVERS

- Escalate the action
- No to franchising of bus services, no to privatisation - for publically owned proper
public transport

Socialist Party & Joe Higgins support Harristown Dublin Bus workers

The following is an article written by Joe Higgins which appeared in the Irish Daily Mail.

The bus drivers on strike this week at the Harristown Bus Depot are taking an important stand for workers’ rights on many levels. Three years ago Dublin Bus put an elaborate strategy into place to move hundreds of drivers from various city depots to Harristown beside Dublin Airport. The clear understanding was that this depot would be the start and finish point for their working day.

Now, in a major change, Dublin Bus management are insisting that drivers on two new routes should be prepared to start and finish in Dublin city centre. The result of this would be to significantly increase the amount of time drivers would have to spend getting to and from the start and finish of their routes. Many Dublin Bus drivers were forced to buy houses in places like Cavan or Dundalk, because successive Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat Governments allowed shameless profiteering to put a home in the capital out of their reach.

Having no option but to drive to work, those on the new routes would have to park their cars at Harristown, then go on a bus (as a passenger) to the city centre to start their routes. The company is allowing 45 minutes for this, but its own bus schedule allows at least one hour for buses that go from Harristown to Parnell Square. They face a similar trek back after their day’s driving before the long journey home.

Management have targeted 80 junior drivers who started work with Dublin Bus early this year to carry the new burden. Hiring new workers with lesser terms and conditions is called ‘yellowpacking.’ Notoriously, the major banks have implemented such a scheme as a way of squeezing workers to maximise profit. The fact that a publicly owned company should try this is reprehensible.

The big majority of the 500 drivers in Harristown would not be immediately affected by the new schedule. It is to their great credit that they are taking a stand to protect the rights of their newer and more vulnerable colleagues in resisting divisive two tier work practices. Equality legislation outlaws discrimination against any worker on the basis of gender or ethnic origin but the first day of the strike spoke louder than any legislation or sermons on equality. In the darkness of an early winter morning, the first person to refuse to implement instructions to work the new routes was a young woman driver.

On being suspended, she was immediately supported by hundreds of other workers, men and women, taking to the picket lines. On the picket the majority are lrish drivers, but standing shoulder to shoulder with them in defence of workers’ rights, are colleagues who come originally from dozens of different countries in Africa and Eastern Europe. This unity has also been reflected in no less than four ballots over a period of months rejecting the new schedules by huge majorities.

It was calculating and mean for Dublin Bus management to implement their plans with Christmas now only six weeks away. No doubt they believed that drivers would feel the financial pressure and hesitate before seeing their wages sharply reduced should a dispute drag on. There is obviously an agenda behind management’s action. The new scheduling arrangements are the thin end of a wedge, which, if allowed to be implemented, would be followed by further demands on workers. It is no coincidence that only a stone’s throws from the Harristown depot, Aer Lingus staff have given seven days strike notice in opposition to the so called Programme for Continuous Improvement which would mean a sharp disimprovement of some thousands of Euro a year in ordinary workers’ pay. Aer Lingus provides a timely reminder what privatisation of public services means. The Government, with the support of Fine Gael, would like to take Dublin Bus down the same road.

The dispute at Harristown has obviously caused severe disruption to thousands of passengers who regularly use the service. However, many passengers, as workers themselves, support the fight by Dublin Bus workers to resist an attack on their working conditions. And many pensioners who use the bus at less crowded times and know their regular drivers will also be sympathetic.

Surely no Government Minister will have the audacity to attack the strike considering they have just awarded themselves pay increases that far surpass the basic wage of a Dublin bus worker for a whole year. Not to mention the fact that their mercs and perks mean they never have to take a bus anywhere!

Dublin Bus should end this dispute forthwith and only implement changes in work conditions in full agreement with the workers. Should that not happen, bus drivers working from other depots around the city will be very loath to see their colleagues in Harristown starved into submission and could justifiably decide to take solidarity action to resolve the issue.

To join or find out more about the Socialist Party contact John McCamley or phone Socialist Party office on 6772592.