Newsletter 6th August: Dublin Bus Strike Socialist Workers Party Newsletter Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Socialist Workers Party Why the Dublin Bus Workers were right to Strike Cuts in Pay and Conditions Workers at Dublin Bus are now into a third day of strike action. The decision to withdraw their labour was overwhelming with more than 90% of workers supporting the strike. Since 2008 Dublin Bus has cut 300 buses and axed over 400 workers. Pay has been frozen since 2007 and there have been drastic changes to workers terms and conditions. The cumulative effect of this has been over €26 million in pay and salary related savings for the company. Despite this management want more. They insist that the company must find another €11 million in savings and demanded that workers bear the cost of this ‘adjustment’. In practice this will mean · A reduction in overtime rates from 1.5 times normal pay to 1.25 (this will cost drivers €35 on a rest day and €90 on a bank holiday) · The loss of 2 days holiday’s for clerical workers and maintenance staff. · The reduction of uncertified sick days from seven to four · No sick pay for the first three days Workers Flexibility On top of this management wants workers to sign up to new travel time and scheduling arrangements. Currently drivers are paid from the moment they arrive at the depot, meaning that they are remunerated whilst travelling to their allotted buses. Under the new scheme this arrangement will be gone as drivers are forced to make their own way to and from the buses they drive. On top of this, management wants to increase the flexibility that drivers give to the extent that it will be extremely difficult to plan for the future. Work-life balance is often bandied about by the government, but under these new arrangements drivers will be expected to clock in and out on the whims of the management. In addition, management expect workers to sign up to the new arrangements without the full information of the extent of these changes. Varadkar’s Privatisation Behind all of these moves the real agenda is privatisation. Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar is determined to introduce competition into the bus network through the auspices of the National Transport Authority. From 2015 there will be a competitive process run by the NTA in which 10% of the bus routes will be up for tender. This means that private operators with staff on reduced pay and conditions can compete for routes currently offered by Dublin Bus. This will then be used as a stick to beat workers in Dublin Bus for the crimes of having a pension and a salary which keeps food on the table. Varadkar has always been an ideological warrior for the Irish bosses. His party’s record in government has been to attack the pay and conditions of Irish workers at the same time as they continue to support the bondholders and the bankers. To date successive Irish governments have cut the subvention for the buses in an ideological drive to privates the service. Across Europe bus services are understood to be a ‘public good’ that improves the lives of those citizens that rely on them. This is why in cities from Lyon to Brussels over 65% of the funding for the services comes from taxation. In contrast Dublin Bus is forced to operate on a subvention of a little more than 25%. Instead of rewarding the workers for decades of service Varadkar wants to drive them into poverty. As a government minister Varadkar earns over €170,000 but expects workers on a fraction of this to give even more. Fight-back Thankfully the workers in Dublin Bus have decided to oppose him. For too long Irish workers have been forced to pick up the cost of the economic crisis and the fate of the Dublin Bus strike will have a crucial effect on other workers in the country. If they win it will be a signal that militancy and unity can prevail over employers who try to bully their employees. This was the lesson that Larkin and Connolly understood only too well and if the leadership decide to talk, the rank and file must remain strongly organised to keep up the pressure to get what they deserve. follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 17:57:05 +0000
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