Public suffers while train drivers hold the country to ransom

THINKING of the behaviour of the Cork train drivers this week brought Rudyard Kipling to mind. It was he who first coined the term “power without responsibility”.

The latest dispute makes one hark back to Ronald Reagan. The US president invoked the national interest in 1981 when he ordered striking air traffic controllers back to work. The strikers clearly thought they were above the law. Reagan warned that anyone who did not return to work would not only be dismissed but also blocked for life from employment by a federal agency.

Reagan carried through with his threat and it was one of the most popular things he ever did. The striking air traffic controllers had no more public sympathy than the Cork train drivers.