Bus unions seek to avoid rural disruption
They have raised the prospect of the disruption spreading to the other State transport companies if cuts are imposed on them without agreement.
The unions met to decide a strategy in the event that the company presses ahead with cuts which, they believe, would equate to a drop of up to 30% in their members’ earnings.
Bus Éireann management has said that after suffering losses of up to €9m last year, it drastically needs to cut its costs or it could be insolvent by the end of the year.
“If, as has been suggested, Bus Éireann moves to unilaterally impose cuts, already described by the (transport) minister himself as severe, than we will be left with no option but to respond accordingly,” they said in a joint statement.
“The trade union group will reconvene in advance of the imposition of such cuts to consider all options in relation to industrial action.”
It said workers would not immediately shut down the entire Bus Éireann network because of the relationship which exists between commuters and staff.
“Our representatives have insisted that we factor in that there are many of their passengers and schoolchildren, particularly in the rural areas, that rely almost exclusively on Bus Éireann’s services into our debate on any forced industrial action, with a view to minimising the impact on those commuters,” said the unions.
However, they said they will, in the meantime, accede to requests from staff at Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus “for extensive briefings on the threat to their colleagues’ wages”.
The unions are demanding that Transport Minister Shane Ross provide leadership and “do the right thing by both commuters and staff by facilitating a forum, without preconditions, through which all stakeholders can play a role in resolving the immediate crisis at Bus Éireann”.
They also want that forum to lead ultimately to a public transport plan “that can finally be put in place without the constant and reactionary spectre of firefighting the industrial action inferno that inevitably follows from crisis to crisis such as we are witnessing today”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny denies that Mr Ross has been “hiding” on the Bus Éireann issue.
“He has been out answering questions in the Dáil on this, there is no more of a public forum than that,” he said.
“The Expressway service is not a subsidised element of the overall element of Bus Éireann and that’s where the losses are occurring.
“Minister Ross has been quite articulate also if the Expressway services were to be redefined or readjusted the National Transport Authority would step in to ensure that areas or of the country that are serviced by Expressway in smaller towns and villages, that a service will be enabled.
“He is not hiding here; this is a matter that needs to be dealt with by unions and I would encourage them to use the facilities of the State to do that,” said Mr Kenny.
Despite the Labour Court this week saying it would not be intervening in the current dispute over pay and cost cuts at Bus Éireann, the Taoiseach told reporters: “I do hope that the engagement with the Labour Court will bring about a situation where they can have discussion between unions and management because this has got to be settled.
“I do hope that management and unions can get together now and use the opportunities of the Labour Court.”
