Thousands of commuters across the State face major disruption today due to a four-hour nationwide bus and rail strike. The strike by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann workers will take place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and all mainline bus, rail, DART and Dublin Bus services will be affected.
CIÉ union members will also take part in protest marches in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick and other urban centres.
National Bus and Railworkers' Union (NBRU) and SIPTU workers said yesterday their action was not aimed at the travelling public but at the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, over their frustration at delays in talks over the proposed break-up of CIÉ.
They said the action would go ahead despite the appointment of Mr Kevin Foley of the Labour Relations Commission last Friday as the chairman of the talks. Mr Liam Tobin of the NBRU said his members regret the necessity to take the action but pledged to enter talks with the LRC to seek a real solution to public transport problems.
"But we are also going ahead with our action to demonstrate to the Minister our anger at his cavalier attitude to 9,000 transport workers in this country, many of them with 20 years or more service and commitment to serving the public," he said. The CIÉ group of unions will be meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the position and take stock of events.
A spokesman for Mr Brennan, said the Government would not be changing its plans. The Minister's view was that there was no need for the stoppage because a talks process was in train.
Widespread disruption will be caused as city buses, Expressway services, rural buses, inter-city and cross-country rail, DART and commuter rail services are expected to stop. Many schedules will suffer a knock-on effect later in the day.
ISME, the Independent Business Organisation, strongly criticised the decision last night, describing it as "malicious, mistaken and mischievous". Chief executive Mr Mark Fielding said the dispute was "symptomatic" of the industrial relations malaise that pervades the public sector, manipulated unscrupulously by the unions.
Mr Michael Halpenny of SIPTU, said last night: "The position is we've asked where practicable that our members join in the action.
"We've asked all our members to support the action but we have said that long-haul carriers should complete their journeys. We don't want any unnecessary disruption but there is going to be disruption."
Mr Halpenny said they were taking the action because the appointment of the chairperson for talks had been urgent since January 8th and it was not until last Friday he was appointed.
"There is an immense amount of frustration on the ground. Our members are not convinced that the Minister has got the message," he said.
"If not, if our members' concerns about the future are not met, we will commence industrial action on March 18th next. We hope this will not have to happen." After today they wanted to knuckle down to talks, he said.
However, as Mr Brennan faced charges of incompetence from Fine Gael and Labour, the parties said there were no grounds for the strike. Fine Gael accused SIPTU and the NBRU of irresponsibility. Its transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said the consumer and the company's customers were the ones to lose out. "I'm surprised that the passengers have to pay and be penalised for the incompetance of the Minister. The unions have a point in being frustrated. This is irresponsible of the unions to be taking it out on passengers when there are now discussions to take place," he said. The Minister had been frustrating the unions and putting them up to this with his ongoing delays in elaborating on the detail of his proposal and facilitating talks, Mr Naughten said.
Labour's spokeswoman Ms Róisín Shortall said she believed the action was a mark of the unions' frustration with Mr Brennan. "Obviously it is better if we can avoid strike action. I think it's regrettable that it's going ahead and I would have hoped that the transport workers might have reconsidered," she said. "Now that a chairperson has been appointed, however late in the day, I would have liked to see the unions reconsider their action."
Transport strike expected to cause major disruption: page 4; Stoppage grounded more on emotion than on reason: page 12; Editorial comment: page 13