Held To Ransom

admiralofthefleet

Yesterday evening (16/08/2006), it was reported that taximen have voted to strike during the forthcoming Ryder Cup, they also voted to refuse to pay the Dublin Airport Authority the €500 annual fee for picking up at Dublin Airport.

Enough is enough, the public has been held to ransom for far too long by a rogue group of taximen.

1000 attended the meeting in the national stadium & voted for these measures, there are over 20 thousand taxi's in the country.

I call on all citizens fed up with being used as cannon fodder to boycott taxi's this saturday nite, to let taxi drivers see that the public have had enough of their pettiness.

Send a txt message/email to your friends letting them know about the boycott, and tell them to pass it on, and together we can all take part in it to demand a better service

Agent Smith

will you bring me home then?

admiralofthefleet

If I could I would.
Use the excellent Nitelink service, prices start at a very reasonable €4

Agent Smith

what if i'm not going on a nitelink?

Archeron

Admiralgar, I admire your stance on this, but sadly, I think the apathy of most people in this situation will lead to most people not giving a damn one way or another; if there are taxis, people will take them.

I just heard about this Ryder cup thing on the radio this morning, and I genuinely fail to see the logic. A group of people are willing to tarnish Irelands reputation as a tourist destination internationally in front of hundreds of millions of people during one of (the?) most important global sporting events ever to come here. What is that supposed to achieve?

I had no strong feelings either way on this matter, and I agree that they are entitled to fight for what they think is fair pay, but when things go this way, only one word springs to mind. W*nkers. They are making no friends with the public and I really hope this turns around and bites them on the ass. There is no excuse for childish petulant behaviour like this.

On a sidenote, do the tourist board/government have any alternatives if they do strike during the Ryder cup, perhaps with minibuses or something? Are taxis actually going to be that important anyway, or will most of the attendees be ferried around in high class Lexus/Merc/Bentley/Helicopters? Certainly, if these people are paying 10 or 20 grand to stay on someones house for a week or two, I cant really picture them climbing into one of our lovely public cabs to move around the place?

dudara

I have no sympathy for the taximen, and I think that most of the country feels the same way I do.

Plus, they're mounting a strike, which cannot change the new fares, as they've already been signed into law. Only a legal challenge can change things now.

Lindaloo

Taxi owners have had it easy for too long now. They know that the Ryder Cup is one way to get the country's attention and more than likely get what they want.

I don't believe the majority want to strike though and it's the few grumblers (you know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that tell you exactly what's wrong with this country and how things are going downhill with the influx of them there immigrants!) that are rotting the barrel. :mad:

The worse thing is, I can see others using the Ryder Cup as a way of getting their point across, the greenkeepers are doing it (fair enough, their job is going to be very stressful), the airport will have another threat, then we'll have the bar staff, the cleaners in hotels, the shop assistants, the florists (why not, everyone else is!).....:D

MrPudding

Archeron wrote:

On a sidenote, do the tourist board/government have any alternatives if they do strike during the Ryder cup, perhaps with minibuses or something? Are taxis actually going to be that important anyway, or will most of the attendees be ferried around in high class Lexus/Merc/Bentley/Helicopters? Certainly, if these people are paying 10 or 20 grand to stay on someones house for a week or two, I cant really picture them climbing into one of our lovely public cabs to move around the place?

I would say it will not effect the golfers at all. I would hazard that a lot of the spectators will probably hire cars but the strick will undoubtedly have an effect.

Hopefully there will be enough drivers willing to ignore the strike.

MrP

squire1

The thing about a strike is, once you have lost public support, you have lost the battle. Up to now, nobody was too bothered about the taxi drivers taking a day off every now and again to have a "strike" but to disrupt the Ryder Cup will lead to resentment from the public and they will loose all sympathy. Same thing happened to the teachers.

Bad move on their part and I can't see it happening.

Cabaal

I've had no support for Taxi Drivers upto now and I certaoinly won't now and I hope many more people will join me,

They earn plenty of money and there is a crazy amount of overcharging, not giving back change etc and now their crying about somebody trying to put a stop to it.

enough is enough already!

admiralofthefleet

Meanwhile.. back [to] the boycott.

ircoha

Perhaps we need to ship in London taxis.
After all the rest of the gig is being run by the english so a few 100 black London taxis would not look out of place at all.

All right Gov!

Irish ferries need the business

admiralofthefleet

Agent Smith, whats your point, the 7n costs €4 and props off at the graduate, which is at killiney shopping centre. i dont know what part of killiney you live in.

I used to pay €20 to get to blackrock until i realised the nitelink was fast & cheap

jaggeh

I am 100% behind the taxi drivers on the whole pricing ****e that deering is bringing in.

im not a taxi driver but i do get a taxi every day.

The airport up till now made them pay 600 per year to use the airport rank, that 600 is supposed to cover the drivers usage of facilities at the airport....
bull****. plus they are charged every time they go into the airport. the 1.50 airport charge is there to offset the cost of both of these.

The baggage charge is there to offset the LOW starting fee when you get in the car. Anyone who has gotten a taxi in somewhere like finland will know what i mean by low.

the fact that Ger Deering hasnt a clue about the taxi industry is going to hurt taximent and the public in the long run.

Think about it, if someone came along and told you that they were cutting your wage by say 4k a year would you just sit back and take it?

They deserve to excersise their right to strike, its the society we live in. wether or not the public supports that decision shouldnt matter.

Power to the taxi-men who get me to work on time!!!!

Guy:Incognito

Boo bloody hoo jaggeh. Theres no taximen starving in this country. Post deregulation they are still raking it in.

jaggeh

so? begrudgery gets you nowhere.

admiralgar

admiralgar wrote:

If I could I would.
Use the excellent Nitelink service, prices start at a very reasonable €4

ah, but if you get 3 other friends, all of whom could be getting on the Nitelink, paying €4 each, that comes to €16...

I'll take the taxi please...

TempestSabre

jaggeh wrote:

....Think about it, if someone came along and told you that they were cutting your wage by say 4k a year would you just sit back and take it?

They deserve to excersise their right to strike, its the society we live in. wether or not the public supports that decision shouldnt matter.

Power to the taxi-men who get me to work on time!!!!

My empathy would depend if you were on 25k or 90k a year. Taximen obviously make a good living, and most people have a poor opinion of their services.

admiralofthefleet

Emmet02 I am only asking people to boycott taxi's for one night, not every night

I know, but i was just showing how the Nitelink isn't that great value if you're in a decent group.

FYI, i'll be in Laois on Saturday, so i wont be using a taxi...

Not boycotting, just not using

rondjon

admiralgar wrote:

Yesterday evening (16/08/2006), it was reported that taximen have voted to strike during the forthcoming Ryder Cup,

It was originally reported that they were "considering" striking, but then the media got ahead of themselves, and it's now become a definite strike.

Would people please cop themselves on?

There was a taxi strike during the Galway Races and the "considerate" taximen of Galway, in the interests of customers, didn't actually go on strike at all.

In the interests of customers? Or to milk the cash cow that was Galway Race Week?

Do you honestly think that any taximan faced with the opportunity of raking it in taking rich foreigners from parts around Dublin city down the country to watch some golf that they're going to turn down the money?

It'll never happen.

Jumpy

admiralgar wrote:

Yesterday evening (16/08/2006), it was reported that taximen have voted to strike during the forthcoming Ryder Cup, they also voted to refuse to pay the Dublin Airport Authority the €500 annual fee for picking up at Dublin Airport.

Enough is enough, the public has been held to ransom for far too long by a rogue group of taximen.

1000 attended the meeting in the national stadium & voted for these measures, there are over 20 thousand taxi's in the country.

I call on all citizens fed up with being used as cannon fodder to boycott taxi's this saturday nite, to let taxi drivers see that the public have had enough of their pettiness.

Send a txt message/email to your friends letting them know about the boycott, and tell them to pass it on, and together we can all take part in it to demand a better service

Apparently there was only 600 at the meeting, and that they do not represent the majority of Taxi drivers. If there is a strike it will have little effect. It will be the rest of the drivers laughing at the 600 that arent earning any money that weekend.

Not cash in on the Cup? Are you mad?