Transport strike: Time to make concessions

It has been apparent for some time that a transport strike is inevitable. Bus Éireann is on the cusp of bankruptcy. 

The company lost €9.4m last year and has warned that losses in the first two months of this year were 41% higher than in the same period a year ago. Against this background, the company must change or die. The only valid question focuses on the scale of that change.

That the company has, after months of shadow boxing, decided to introduce cost cuts without union agreement provoked today’s strike. Unions have warned that it may be an all-out, indefinite dispute across the public transport sector.