Dublin Bus workers threaten strike

vandermeyde wrote: »

As is always the case in these things its the public who pays :rolleyes:

'A' has an issue with 'B' but goes out and beats up innocent 'C'. :mad:

A few years ago train drivers went on strike. I know that many B&B owners in Killarney lost a ton of business. It's almost impossible to repair the damager to customer opinion for something like that.
This strike can only erode the already low opinion people have of public transport ... and force them back into their cars ... which will make the average speeds of buses even slower.

I'm lucky that I cycle or take the train or work from home. I haven't taken a bus in years and avoid them at all cost.

This post has been deleted.

Jip wrote: »

It should have been a total free for all the length of the entire bus lane, the bus lanes on the N1, N2 and N3 were open today to regular traffic.

Where was the N1 bus lane closed?

Edit: According to AA, the bus lane on the N2 is open to traffic in both directions from the M50 to Hart's Cnr. Normal operating rules apply to the N1/Swords Rd and N3/Navan Rd bus lanes.

meanmachine3 wrote: »

what would you think if me and my comrades went on strike last week looking for a new timetable.
would you still think the same way or would your attitudes be different?

Comrades?!

I'd say if you went on strike looking for timetable changes on a few routes, everyone who doesn't travel on those routes would be against you, and most people on those routes who work with the current timetable would be against you to. And people who weren't happy with the current timetable would probably rather stick with it and have buses running.
So, everyone would feel the same way.

greatly described dub_commuter..

the new services are not even in effect....though again that could be a stubborn part on management, but im pretty sure the employees made their decision and just went ahead anyway.....

its just so much hassle and sometimes i actually DO question the so called "goverment" of our country.

But at the end of the day routes need to be accessable for every part of our capital...no matter how little used they are, thats why they are a public company.

its basically showing major neglect for certain people in this country.

RTE News wrote:

Around 300 bus drivers from the Harristown bus depot in Dublin are protesting outside the headquarters of Dublin Bus in O'Connell Street.

Funny, they didn't have any problem getting into the city centre instead of Harristown this morning, did they?

The current Harristown squabble is quite simply the result of some very sloppy negotiation on BOTH sides.
In the rush to commission the Garage into service it appears as if BOTH Management and Unions failed to observe the most basic of protocol`s which are the staple of every amateur group which holds any form of collective discussion...Write Everything Down and have it Initialled...the very minimum of recording etiquette..

Brilliant ! As usual AS a pleasure to read.


What a lot of non-union people do not know is that there are an extremely rigid set of industrial relations in this country.

Not having an "Written Agreement" = Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear Caveat Emptor

Not accepting the Labour Court = Red Alert ! Shields Up ! Trouble Ahead...

bk wrote: »

I'm actually starting to think that the government wants this strike.

As we've seen with the Taxi driver strike, the general public just doesn't support strikes any more and from this thread and almost 100% of people I've talked to about it over the last two days, no one supports this strike either.

When the general public (who mostly work in the private sector) hears about the reasons for this strike in the newspapers, etc. they throw their eyes to the heavens and say "welcome to the real world".

This all leads to a growing call amongst the general public for the privatisation of DB. Which of course suits the government perfectly.

For those who say that privatisation doesn't work, while it certainly doesn't work with buses here in Ireland at the moment, it can certainly work very well.

Just look at the example of London Bus, most people don't realise it but London bus is actually operated by about 12 private bus companies. The London Transport Authority defines the routes, the number of buses to be operated, the fare, type of buses to be used and even the look and branding on the buses and then puts each route out to tender and the private bus companies bid on the route.

The LTA monitors the operating of all routes and if the private operator doesn't meet the requirements, their contract is pulled and given to someone else.

The great thing about this system is that you get the best of both worlds, the advantages of a public bus service and the advantages of the private sector. Uneconomical routes are still serviced as the private bus company gets the contract price regardless of usage and the LTA finances uneconomical routes from the very busy routes. Also passengers benefit from a completely integrated system, they never know that the bus they take from day to day might actually be run by a different company, as all the fares, equipment, branding, website are all defined by LTA, not like the awful unintegrated system we get here between DB, Mortons, Swords Express etc. with different ticket systems, fares, bus types, websites, etc.

And all it takes is a €12 per day charge on every car entering central London to pay for it.

The government certainly do not want to implement that model of tendering as they do not want to pay for it.

It is an expensive way of running things and that is even with the very small profit margins that TfL force the operators to accept. Levels that they will not tolerate in smaller markets.

For all it's faults DB do supply a bus service for relatively little money.

bk wrote: »

The point is privitisation can be done and it can be done well. An example of it being done well in Ireland is the LUAS, where the RPA defines the schedule, routes, trams used, ticketing, branding, etc. and monitors it's running but it is actually run by Veoila.

It is a desperately inefficient faux competition model that effectively doubles the numbers of managerial staff, the real non-operational costs are hidden in the complex natures of the contracts involved.



Even if CIE is privatised, under EU laws the staff will have to be kept on under their current conditions. Like AerLingus are doing new employees can be hired with worse pay and conditions but legacy staff retain their status.

i was going to say some of the likes above like suspend but that it slightly against our way of living. But as public servants I think that would be acceptable, if you are going to deprive 60,000 people of an essential service, screw you your not getting paid, and your on suspension.

Probably because I'm a cold hearted bastard I feel this way.... but like ive stated before im also in a line of work that serves the public a need and service, and there is talk of our organisation going on strike, and management have simply said " go on strike, dont ever come back to work".

Trying working a 12 hour shift in retail then give some gripes.

My reference to management. There is drastic contradictions to those who have worked internally up to management positions and those who have entered an organisation straight into management level. Its the same in every job everywhere, some work up some come straight in with degrees behind them.

I don't know who runs dublin bus nor do I care. But...

If the management making the decisions where promoted internally, they would understand this new implementation would involve unsettling bus drivers. They would understand problems and concerns before the idea passes the initial thought process.

Someone who comes externally into the organisation as management was probably thinking. " ok we need to give more service to this area " for whatever reason. And the concerns and problems where not thought off.

I'm going to assume, that when the idea was thought up, unions and bus driving reps where consulted and employees could make their feelings known. Thats what any good management team would do when implementing a change in the workplace or workpractice.

Then when they have weighed up the arguements, they make their decision.

So I'm going to assume, and i must state ASSUME. That the idea was put to DBus representitves, they then made their objections felt. After this the pros and cons where weighed up.

After this process it was obviously decided that the idea would go ahead, as the concerns did not weigh substantially to disrupt the idea for new routes. Basically, the only problem was bus drivers finishing in town instead of the airport, thus making their trip home longer.

And I think anyone with a bit of cop on would agree with the decision. Obviously the bus drivers will not.

But at the end of the day, you dont even pay bus fare So not like its costing you.

I also had to laugh reading an interview with a bus driver how he said this new action and having him finishing up further from home would "damage" and "effect" his relationship with his family.

I think some people need to unravel themselves from their cotton wool world.

My father is a postman and gets up at 5am every morning to travel miles away, breaks his neck doing his shift then goes and does overtime, he then goes and does nights so he can provide a good standard of living for his family because he wants too.

And bus drivers are having a whine because their journey home is now an hour not 20 minutes. Give me a break.