Public used in blackmail game - Transport strikes

WITH Dublin plagued by a series of bitter public transport strikes staged by Dublin Bus, which is grinding the city to a halt with depressing regularity, it would be an industrial relations miracle if other towns and cities did not become mired in the same morass. 

A leap-frog process initiated by trade unions has been prolonged by the failure of management to engage around the table because the coffers of loss-making state-owned companies are empty.

Hopes of some kind of engagement were dashed by yesterday’s bombshell announcement from its sister company, Bus Éireann, unveiling plans to separate the leaking Expressway service from the rest of the company. It also informed workers on the intercity routes that it is thinking about changing their terms and conditions. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Shane Ross has rightly stayed on the sidelines, refusing to appear on the proverbial ‘white horse’.