TOM DARBY:FEW TRADE union leaders had a greater impact on day-to-day industrial relations in Ireland in the second half of the 20th century than Tom Darby, who has died aged 81. His influence was greater than would be expected from the leader of a relatively small union, the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union.
His critics acknowledged his courage and one adversary admitted respecting him for his "rugged honesty". He never worried that his public image was often that of an over-militant maverick and was unperturbed when he and his union were criticised, particularly when public transport was disrupted by strikes.
From the outset, he recognised that CIÉ workers would have to fight vigorously for any benefits or concessions. He viewed industrial relations in CIÉ and its subsidiaries as too impersonal, consisting in the main of ministerial or bureaucratic directives being "passed on" by personnel executives to union representatives.
A constant thorn in the side of CIÉ, he also clashed regularly with other CIÉ unions and Ictu.
Born in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath in 1928, he left school at 14 and for the next seven years worked as a labourer with the Land Commission in Westmeath Co Council and Bord na Móna.
At 21, he moved to Dublin and found work as a bus conductor with CIÉ, based at the Clontarf bus depot. An active member of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, he was elected to the committee of its Dublin bus branch. There was a strong feeling among the bus crews that their pay would have to be improved. He and his colleagues formed a group to persuade the union to secure an increase.
Dissatisfied with the union's reaction, they contacted bus workers in other Dublin depots and discovered that dissatisfaction was widespread. From these contacts, the Dublin Busmen's Union was formed.
Provincial busmen sought membership and it was agreed to admit them. The renamed National Busmen's Union (NBU) opened its first office at Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, in April 1964. After a group of train drivers transferred to it from the ITGWU in 1982, the name was changed again to the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union. One of the union's first actions was to lodge a claim, but Ictu advised the Labour Court not to consider it, according to Darby.
The union called a series of one-day strikes. When the second of these strikes took place, the members were locked out. The union placed pickets and the entire CIÉ system was immobilised. A meeting was arranged at the home of the then Labour TD Dr John O'Connell, attended by the chief conciliation officer of the Labour Court and NBU leaders.
The outcome was an increase of 12 shillings and sixpence a week, in addition to a national agreement of 12 per cent for two years.
A bitter inter-union dispute over the five-day week arose in 1974. The NBU, which did not join the strike, claimed its members had been intimidated as they brought, or tried to bring, buses out of the garages. A leading article in this newspaper referred to drivers being dragged from cabs of buses and then kicked and punched, and buses "pursued by carloads of men, damaged and rendered unserviceable".
An ITGWU spokesman responded, saying the NBU had come to power through "the blind use of the picket - official, lightning and otherwise - and without reference to the thousands of bus workers who were not involved in the disputes".
The NBU's most successful settlement came in 1979. It lodged a claim of £17.50 and the Labour Court recommended £7 a week, which was accepted by other unions representing bus workers but rejected by the NBU.
Later, following an investigation, the Labour Court recommended a rise £10.20 a week at a time when a national settlement gave an increase of just over £1.
In March 1984 the union picketed the Sunday World offices in protest at the paper's claims of misbehaviour by bus workers.
With the Marine, Port and General Workers' Union and Seamens' Union of Ireland, the NBU formed the Irish Trade Union Federation, a body comparable to Ictu but independent of it. An invitation to join Ictu in 1984 was rejected after the members had been consulted.
Darby retired in 1992.A keen gardener, he grew his own vegetables and enjoyed playing golf. His wife Eileen and sons Séamus, Liam and Seán survive him.
Tom Darby: born February 28th, 1928; died November 10th, 2009