CIE strikes cancelled by O'Connor

by J. A. Thu Mar 18, 2004 01:26

Well, surprise, surprise.
Lets face it, they never had any intention of going ahead with the strike. It was just posturing from the start. Its what the union bureaucracy do best.
I have my own reasons to mistrust the union bureaucracy, having been stabbed in the back by a couple of minor union officials, who were then backed up by a well known high level union poser. (I am not referring to SIPTU)
I agree, we need unions that are genuinely under the control of the members.

by Green Anarchist Thu Mar 18, 2004 12:06

Cheers to Siptu for calling off the strike.
Jeers to the busmen for jeopardising public transport.

The planet is dying and they want to force people into private cars to protct their crappy jobs.

If they put the same energy into their energy how much closer to the godhead would they be?

by Muppet watch Thu Mar 18, 2004 12:16

Please it's the day after Paddy's day. Head and stomach are a bit dodgy so leave off with the BS and the trolling, muppet.

by Jim Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:05

Some day, maybe not soon, but some day, the worm will turn.

Jack O'Connor, Joe O'Flynn and the rest have sold out the union founded by Larkin and Connolly. Members must take it back from them.

by Chekov Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:15

"Cheers to Siptu for calling off the strike. Jeers to the busmen for jeopardising public transport."

I see that 'green anarchist' has the same interpretation of strikes as tony o reilly and michael o leary. Why would the busmen by jeopardising public transport - ie their jobs? In fact Brennan is trying to break up CIE and destroy our public transport service. The busmen are responding with the ony real weapon available to them - the strike. Sure they may have to withdraw the service for a short while, but much better than to allow the government to sabotage the service for ever.

Victory to the busmen. They are the ones defending public transport against the government's neo-liberal privatisation program.

by Christ Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:31

Love thy fellow man, bus(man) i loooove you.

by Joe Soap Public Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:31

Get of your behinds and get the buses running on time you lazy so-in-sos.
Get the trains running on time.
Do your jobs!
We the public pay you enough already.
We want a train line built from Derry to Sligo to Tuam to Galway and to Limerick. We want direct line running from Derry to Dublin.
The public want to use the trains and we expect you bozos to do the job right.
If you wont do it then we will get some other company to do it for us.
A little competition would work wonders

by Professor know it all Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:37

Dont be such a fool from now on, trains from derry to sligo just dont cut the cake.

by Little Amy Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:50

Brennan is trying to sabotage CIE and has plans to privatise the sector, have we learnt nothing from other countries privatisation mistakes? its like selling Grannys silverware.

by David Thu Mar 18, 2004 13:56

CIE dont get to decide whether or not to build new train lines, or to open new bus routes or to buy new carriages or new buses... its the government who have been deliberately strangling the public transport in this country. It is only the government who bear the blame and who has the power to change things for the better. Recently the Government have have refused to sanction new bus routes because they want to allow the service to disintegrate thereby building up public support for privatisation. If people fall for this simple trick then they should be very ashamed

by Leon Thu Mar 18, 2004 14:04

I disagree that strikes are the only weapon available to CIE workers;
free fares days would be more effective.

In fact strikes can't succeed for 3 reasons:
1 The politicians don't use public transport and won't be inconvenienced.
2 As CIE is a loss maker every day the system is shut down is a day the government saves money.
3 The public will be antagonised.

Free fares days would increase the volume of people travelling on public transport and would prompt
the reasonable question of why can't the fares always be free?

The Industrial Relations infrastructure is designed to defuse the unions and compensate the union leadership
for this by bringing them into the broader establishment.

If striking could change anything they'd make it illegal.

by Green Anarchist Thu Mar 18, 2004 14:10

We are only one small section of life
on our mother the earth.
Why do the busmen want to strike?
Another holiday getting drunk in a tacky resort
in spain?
More toys for their fat thuggish kids?
More cigarettes stealing the nutrients from
the earth and destroying their only body?
More horrible cheap jewellery?

why not think about the planet?

by Henrik Thu Mar 18, 2004 15:16

The Green Anarchist, seems to be awfully concerned about the earth, he fails to realise that we will be living in outposts dotted through out space in less then 100 years, so it really doesnt matter what we do to this planet because we can just find a better one with maybe even more oil. We will probably have buses in space too.

by David Thu Mar 18, 2004 15:19

Why havent the workers been pushing this as a strategy? what position has the union 'leadership' taken on this?
Or could i just guess

by Leon Thu Mar 18, 2004 15:31

In July last year there was a free fares day. It was followed by threats from the management to dock wages to recover wages paid on that day;
The Siptu leadership said at the time that they would do it again.

CIE losts approx 1.5 million (in excess of their usual daily losses) On taht day.

by Joe Thu Mar 18, 2004 15:32

'Green Anarchist" may be the same trot who has pretended to be an anarchist on the following threads
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61344
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61354
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63534
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63593

While I may have disagreements with some who use the label 'green anarchist' they generally know which side they are on when it comes to any conflict between bosses and workers, especially when the workers concerned are defending public transport!

by Muppet watch Thu Mar 18, 2004 16:11

Glad to see you maintain your high standard of analysis (not).

"If striking could change anything they'd make it illegal."

I'll think you will find, that is exactly what they are doing. Ever hear of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 etc, etc.

by Leon Thu Mar 18, 2004 16:24

By working within the frameworks that the bosses set all you do is play their game.

Free Fares day was illegal
The bricklayers broke the law on their strike against subcontraccting (by beating up scabs).

Strikes achieve nothing when used in loss making companies.
A strike at Ryanair would see results and that is why they don't allow unions.
A strike at Dublin Bus won't and that's why they do.

by Muppet watch Thu Mar 18, 2004 16:34

So what would you advocate that the Bus workers do?
Burn down Liberty Hall? Shoot all the employers?

Tell you what, stick to your Rambo videos, I'm sure the real anarchists in this country must be embarrassed by your drivel.

by Leon Thu Mar 18, 2004 16:46

MuppetWatch:

You haven't provided a defense of strikes. All you've done is criticise my criticism. That isn't analysis.

Your fetishisation of the legally accepted procedures is absurd. The law is designed to privilege the privileged: if you see what I mean (which I doubt).
Frankly it is like something an American liberal would say.

What do you imagine this one day action would have accomplished?

Muppet Watch look in the mirror and send me that info.

by Muppet watch Thu Mar 18, 2004 17:03

"You haven't provided a defense of strikes. All you've done is criticise my criticism. That isn't analysis."

Just for interest Leon what part of the States are you from?
I didn't think I had to defend strikes. Funny that your analysis seems to fit in with the Union hierarchy. The workers in SIPTU formed a workers strike committee who decided to have a one day stoppage. Their leadership, who seem to have the same analysis as yourself, went against the democratic process and overruled their membership. You don't seem to care too much about democracy. The one day stoppage has now been cancelled on several occassions because of intervention by the Government. Why I wonder - would it have anything to do with the fact that if it went ahead, people might wonder what it was about and might cop on to Brennan's plans for the break up of OUR transport system.

"Your fetishisation of the legally accepted procedures is absurd. The law is designed to privilege the privileged: if you see what I mean (which I doubt). "

Quite correct, I don't have a clue what you are talking about here other than vaguely understanding that once an action is illegal, you are probably going to be for it. Again I will ask you what do you think the bus workers should be doing bearing in mind that you said that strikes should be avoided as they antagonise the public.

"Frankly it is like something an American liberal would say."

Again I doubt it, an American liberal would probably agree with your point of view of not antagonising the populance. 'Where have we heard that one before.

"Muppet Watch look in the mirror and send me that info."
Once again stick to your Rambo movies.

by Leon Thu Mar 18, 2004 17:41

If I owned ten dry cleaners (frankly I wish I did) and the staff went on strike because I paid overtime at the standard pay rate it would be in my interest to make a deal and pay time and a half because I would be losing money every day people were on strike.

If I was the minister for transport and CIE went on strike it would take weeks for people to start blaming ME for the strike and stop blaming the workers. I wouldn't care.

In the case of the Public Sector strikes are not necessarily the best approach.

Muppetwatch:
In this case a free fares day would be more effective.
I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings (though looking at the comments above I can't see how). Maybe you need a hug.

by Dermot Thu Mar 18, 2004 20:38

As a worker paid by the hour, I would like to thank SIPTU for saving me a taxi fare of 35 Euro (four hours pay) to get from Ashbourne to work this morning for 8.