DRIVERS AT Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann are to hold a national one-day strike at the end of the month, followed by a two-day stoppage in March, in protest at proposed cutbacks at the companies.
The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU), which represents 3,200 workers in both companies, will hold its first stoppage on Saturday, February 28th, and the two-day stoppage on March 9th and March 10th.
The first stoppage coincides with the Ireland rugby team’s Six Nations clash with England in Croke Park, while the two-day stoppage falls on Monday and Tuesday, hitting thousands of commuters around the country.
The strike dates were announced yesterday afternoon after a meeting of the union’s executive council.
Some 88 per cent of union members on Monday backed a proposal for industrial action, up to and including full strike action, if the companies press ahead with restructuring plans.
NBRU general secretary Michael Faherty said he would be “very surprised if there wasn’t full support from Siptu” for the strike.
Such support would mean a complete shutdown of bus services in the capital and around the country during the strikes.
Dublin Bus is planning to cut its number of jobs by 290, including 160 drivers, and intends to reduce its fleet by 120 buses.
Bus Éireann is planning 322 redundancies, including 110 drivers, and a fleet reduction of 150 vehicles. The two State bus companies say they are facing losses of more than €30 million each this year unless corrective action is taken.
They say the economic downturn has led to a sharp decline in passenger numbers, and their restructuring plans are designed to return both companies to a break-even position by the end of 2010.
Both bus companies intend to implement the first phase of their cutback plans at the end of the month by terminating the employment of some 160 probationary drivers and making a further 110 contract drivers redundant.
The NBRU wants the companies to instead introduce a voluntary redundancy scheme for existing drivers as a prerequisite to entering talks on the cutbacks.
Mr Faherty said the company was targeting new drivers on probation “as an easy option to introduce cuts is an unfair and lazy way to make savings”.
“In the present economic crisis we should be investing more in public transport, not less,” he added.
Dublin Bus said it was facing a “very serious and challenging financial position” in 2009 which it must take urgent action to address. In a statement it said it had “no choice” but to implement the cost-effectiveness plan on March 1st, 2009.
A spokesman for Bus Éireann said it also “regretted” the union’s plan for a strike since talks with unions on cost-cutting had not even started. “It will have financial implications for the company when we are already in a precarious position.”
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said a strike would “solve nothing”.
It was time CIÉ unions and management “sit around a table and quickly work out how to provide a top quality, customer-focused bus service for the public”.
