SIPTU bus workers to support NRBU strike
dublin |
worker & community struggles and protests |
news report 
Thursday July 08, 2004 16:46
by Dave Lordan - swp
Cross union solidarity among bus workers adds impetus to anti privatisation struggle
SIPTU and NRBU rank and file to unite on pickets against privatisation on July 20th
In a move which will greatly strengthen the upcoming anti privatisation strike on Dublin Bus (July 20th) SIPTU bus workers have announced they are to join the strike originally called by the NRBU. This will confound management and right wing media commentators who hope to use inter-union rivalry as a way to break the strike.
Bill McCamley of SIPTU bus workers said earlier today after a meeting of SIPTU bus workers committee that "The Dublin Bus Branch Committee met today at which the forthcoming national transportation strike was debated. The committee welcomed the NBRU decision and unanimously decided to support and man pickets on the various Dublin Bus depots on the days of the stoppages. It was the opinion of the committee that the NBRU's decision to strike totally vindicates the views of SIPTU's National Strike Committee on 17th March 2004 when their stoppage was cancelled by the Union's General Officers. The issues are now - even though the SIPTU and NBRU leadership disputed it at the time - the crucial questions related to measuring Dublin Bus in the form of bus kilometres rather than routes and the continuous issuing of licences by The Department of Transport.
The committee has decided that they will not ballot their members in Dublin Bus as the branch believes it still has a valid mandate.
Secondly, the committee has no intention of seeking permission from SIPTU's General Officers as it believes it has the primary responsibility to look after the working conditions of the union's members in Dublin Bus. The committee urges its bus drivers not only to respect the NBRU pickets but to turn out in large numbers at the gates"
If the governemnts privatisation agenda suffers a setback due to workers resistance on the buses it would be a major step forward for the anti-privatisation struggle in all areas. Activists should send text messages of support to Bill McCamley at 087 9066461
and call by the pickets on July 20th to show support to the drivers.
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8The unions just want their share of the public cake. They will be bought off with a share of the company. Look at the ESB, they are going on strike not for wages but for 20% of their company. Its not their company it belongs to the people. So do Bus Eireann Dublin Bus and Iarnoid Eireann.
SIPPTU showed what a bunch of scabs they are during the Anti Bin Tax fight. A lot of them were only too happy not to collect bins. Lazy gits. It was also a SIPTU member who knocked Joe Mooney down. SIPTU are defending this psycho driver.
You are missing the point here. This was a decision of the Dublin Bus Branch Committee of SIPTU to support a strike, something that anyone who is supportive of the trade union movement should welcome.
The SIPTU bureaucracy is one of the most entrenched and right wing of any Irish union. You don't have to go as far as the bin tax dispute to show that. You don't even have to bring up the "no industrial action" sweetheart deal they have done with Connex. The union leadership had previously called off a strike on much the same issues by SIPTU members. That the Dublin Bus membership want to support their NBRU colleagues who are taking action is an important step.
You need to distinguish between the trade union movement and membership and the union bureaucracy.
Kevin most people in Ireland could be members of a union and indeed a majority of purblic service workers are. So individual members are likely to hold a very large range of views indeed and some will be what you or I might consider to be quite obnoxious. That is because their unions of workers rather then self selected bunches of activists.
I'm also in SIPTU and I spent quite a bit of time on the bin tax blockades as did other SIPTU members I knew. Other SIPTU members who are bin workers were willing to take action at the time as they reckoned it was a good moment to act in their interests as well as ours (and as most are low paid workers who also pay the bin tax our interest was also theirs) .The SIPTU leadership on the other hand not only failed to do anything but the most token mumurings against the jailings but actively defused the situation on the ground on those occasions where it looked like workers were going to walk out of the depots.
If it was a situation where all those concerned realised their common interests and struck together we'd be able to look for a lot more than the abolition of the bin tax. That's not the case, unfortunatly the working class is endless divided into groups that don't recognise themselves in others. All too often solidarity is a slogan rather than a practice and its good to see the SIPTU busworkers treating it otherwise.
I heard him speak at the Irish Social Forum amongst other events and, while he will state that ihe is not a rrrevolutionary socialist he clearly is engaged in opposing privatisation.
Good report Dave - do you know how solid the mandate they have is? Surely the earlier strike notice must be approaching 6 months now?
(related to the thread earler in the week)
See Dave? Its not that difficult to put up a post. Anyone can be an indymedia contributor. You can shape the content of the news on the site.
Why does it have to be a strike? How about another 'No Fares Day'? Surely that would make more sense.
The no fares day was a good idea that I would like to see repeated but it unfortunatly it does not have the same impact as a transport strike. The power of a transport strike is as much if not more in the disruption it causes for every business and employer as it is in the revenue loss it causes Dublin Bus. Arguably the government is not that worried by 'no fares' causing a loss for a public service they want to privitise anyway.
I applaud the NBRU and SIPTU members for standing up to corporate beauocracy.Minister brennan is too indulged in Neo Liberal Fantasies to consider the practical implications of privatisation.Is a profiteering private company going to maintain non profitable routes or concessions for schoolchildren and the elderley?,I think not as a private company`s first duty is always to deliver profits to its shareholders.Transport must remain democratically accountable to the public.Look what happened after the privatised the transport system in britan.
Privatisation=Disaster, this is epitomized also by the break up of Telecom.
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