Unions meet ahead of 'no fares' protest

Public transport users are being asked to make only regular journeys tomorrow when CIÉ unions hold a "no fares" protest against reforms of the sector planned by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.

The unions advised commuters who usually walk, or cycle or use their cars to maintain their normal routine. They promised that all services would operate as normal. Mr Noel Dowling, SIPTU national secretary said "There are dangers of people seeking to take advantage and take extra journeys, but I don't think it will happen."

Bus and train workers will not to collect fares tomorrow. Customers on all of CIÉ services - including city bus, DART, mainline rail and provincial bus services - will be able to travel free unless they have prepaid tickets.

Mr Dowling said he accepted that by holding a protest action the unions were opening themselves up to the charge of being "against change". But he said, tomorrow's action had been designed to keep passenger disruption to an absolute minimum. "We decided to use [the no-fares day] as the least disruptive way to highlight the issues and spark a public debate," Mr Dowling said.

He said the Minister's argument that breaking up CIÉ would improve services was "unsustainable". Compared with other state-run public transport services Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann scored high on competitiveness, he claimed.

The real problems hampering the provision of a quality public transport system was decades of under investment and a failure to tackle congestion on the roads, according to the unions.

The unions are also concerned that workers pensions may be under threat. According to Mr Dowling the Minister for Transport has not carried out sufficient research. "We asked the Minister what would happen to our members' pension entitlements, were they protected, and the Minister didn't know."

Mr Brennan's proposals are also contrary to a letter from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in February of this year. It states: "With regard to the commercial semi-state sector, we are committed to active engagement with the social partners on the basis of the Government's commitment to its role in providing services of world-class quality at a competitive price to the consumer, with a viable long term future for individual companies based on the most appropriate form of ownership or structure for its particular needs."

According to the CIÉ unions this agreement has been broken by Mr Brennan's proposed reforms. This afternoon they called for the Minister to engage with the unions in proper consultation and negotiation.

CIÉ will make a decision on Monday whether or not to dock a day's pay from workers participating in the action tomorrow. The unions say that if "the company decides to dock workers pay . . . . we have procedures to deal with that."

The Minister for Transport responded the unions' campaign by saying he had no plans to sell Dublin Bus and there would be no compulsory redundancies.

Mr Brennan said central to his proposed reforms was a desire to give customers better value for money.

The Minister plans to dismantle CIÉ and offer 25 per cent of the Dublin Bus market to private contractors from early 2004.