OscailtGovernment campaign to sabotage Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann bus services through privatisation has begunJust three weeks ago the National Transport Authority (NTA) officially started the tendering for 2016 of initially 10% of Dublin Bus routes and a further 10% of all Bus Eireann routes with most of the routes in Waterford City, and a number of Dublin commuter routes are to be privatised. In the original plan a number of Cork City routes were to go but these will probably happen later. This process has been the culmination of a relentless effort by Fine Gael (FG) in the present government and their predecessors and fellow Neo-Liberal ideologists, Fianna Fáil (FF) in the last government where they have consistently pushed for the break up of both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann so that it can be handed over to their friends in the private sector to run on a profit basis. The NTA is used as a sort of cloak of respectability to give the impression that they will actually be a regulator with teeth of which we know very few regulators have any teeth, with the banking regulator during the Celtic Tiger coming to mind, plus many other examples and the function of NTA is really for propaganda value to convince the middle class. However this whole scheme is about ideology and is NOT about competition but about privatisation.
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2015-02-24T23:06:46+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=105264http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifSIPTU shares public concern regarding cuts to Bus Éireann serviceshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3000962015-02-24T23:06:46+00:00siptuSIPTU shares public concern regarding cuts to Bus Éireann services
Press Release...<strong>SIPTU shares public concern regarding cuts to Bus Éireann services</strong><br />
<strong>Press Release</strong><br />
Date Released: 23 February 2015<br />
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SIPTU members share the public’s concern over the impact on rural communities of the proposal to cut almost 100 Bus Éireann services, including in the south-east, the west and north-west, that was revealed today (Monday, 23rd February).<br />
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SIPTU Sector Organiser, Willie Noone, said: “The result of these cuts will be that some villages and towns are left with no public transport links to Dublin. Jobs will also be lost in Bus Éireann and if services are restored a private company will provide them, ensuring inferior employment conditions for workers.<br />
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“The cuts to services announced today are on routes which are not provided with state funding under the Public Service Obligation (PSO) system. Management has said that the reason for the cuts is that the routes are not profitable. Therefore, they should be allocated state funding through the PSO.”<br />
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He added: “At present Bus Éireann is at a disadvantage when competing against a private operator on a route as it provides a pension provision for workers and cannot operate below cost. Private operators can operate below cost for a period of time and when Bus Éireann vacates the route they can then apply for a PSO subsidy from the National Transport Authority.<br />
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“This unfair position is just one of the many issues facing our members in the public transport sector. They have been subject to savage pay cuts over the past 18 months, face losing 10% of PSO routes due to NTA proposals to increase ‘competition’ in transport provision while management has said even more services could be cut.<br />
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"Our members in Bus Éireann have already contributed to the survival of the company by agreeing major changes to their terms and conditions of employment. Unless a proper public debate about the provision and funding of public transport occurs now the future for bus transport could well be industrial conflict and reductions in services for the public.”Climate Change.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3000972015-02-25T13:09:50+00:00Rational EcologistIf we were taking seriously our commitments vis a vis CO2eq emissions, then we w...If we were taking seriously our commitments vis a vis CO2eq emissions, then we would be going in the opposite direction and providing viable alternatives to private car ownership and use. What a retrograde, backward step. It will force more people into cars; those that can afford to run a car.<br />
If we took our environmental responsibilities seriously, we would also address these social issues of connectivity and son on.<br />
What a backward, gobshite state we live in.<br />
Privatise, privatise, privatise, but transfer any losses to the public. Denis O' Brien and his ilk ARE our government.<br />
FG are in the pocket of the large wind farm industry, the fake fish industry, the subsidy-chasing agri industry; the list of sponsor seeking payback is endless.<br />
Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann to strike for 48 hourshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3002392015-04-30T10:36:22+00:00TDublin Bus and Bus Eireann are planning a 48 hour strike starting tomorrow over ...Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann are planning a 48 hour strike starting tomorrow over the selloff of 10% of their routes. There appears to be a lot of support by people who would be affected by the strike, for this.<br />
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The only thing is that they should have been having these strikes last year before the contracts went out to tender and alert the public earlierStrike update: Efforts to remove the right to strikehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3002442015-04-30T21:52:21+00:00TIt is reported on RTE that both Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus are to take legal act...It is reported on RTE that both Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus are to take legal action to recoup any costs incurred by loss of revenue due to the strike over the next two days.<br />
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This is a blatant attempt to undermine people's right to strike and to bully the workforce into line. At stake here are the jobs of bus drivers all of whom are ultimately at risk because privatisation doesn't just mean a bad bus service that will be still be funded by the state but they will have to give extra money to give profits to private operators and it will also mean low paid jobs with no benefits.<br />
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Quoting from the report:<br />
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<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em>It is understood Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus have served legal letters on both trade unions informing them of this move seeking compensation for losses including reputational damage.</em></blockquote><br />
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Save Our Bus Services - SIPTU Liberty newsletterhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3002582015-05-11T23:28:43+00:00THere's a recent article by Scott Millar in the SIPTU Liberty newsletter on the b...Here's a recent article by Scott Millar in the SIPTU Liberty newsletter on the bus services issue<br />
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<strong>Save our bus services</strong><br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em>Bus drivers across the country will engage in four days of strike action during May to defend the public transport service and decent jobs from the threat of privatisation. SIPTU drivers in Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann will conduct 24-hour work stoppages on Friday, 1st May, Saturday, 2nd May, Friday, 15th May and Saturday, 16th May. The decision to engage in strike action by over 1,500 drivers follows a refusal by the management of both companies to meet with workers to discuss their major concerns over plans to privatise 10% of bus routes during 2016.<br />
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Announcing the major escalation of the SIPTU members campaign to defend the public transport system, SIPTU Construction and Utilities Division Organiser, Owen Reidy, said: “The privatisation plan being promoted by the National Transport Authority (NTA) is driven by ideological concerns rather than a focus on improving services. Privatisation of these routes will be a bad deal for the citizen and tax payer, the travelling public and indeed the workers who provide these services.<br />
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He added: “SIPTU has engaged in Labour Relations Commission facilitated talks with all the relevant stakeholders for the last nine months. These talks collapsed during April when the bus companies and NTA refused to answer a number of serious concerns about job security raised by SIPTU members.”<br />
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The four days of strike action, during which drivers will mount picket lines outside bus depots across the country, will be financially hard hitting for the workers involved but they state that they have been left with no option. SIPTU activist and Dublin Bus worker director, Bill McCamley, told Liberty:, “In the 40 years I have worked on the buses I’ve seen nothing comparable to the threat that the service currently faces.<br />
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“Privatisation is billed as something that will benefit the community but it won’t. The State subventions will end up being higher and the service less. That is because what a public bus company puts back into the service will be gone in private profits.” The NTA privatisation proposals would see 10% of Dublin Bus routes and nearly all Bus Éireann services in Waterford transferred to private companies.<br />
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SIPTU Sector Organiser, Willie Noone, said: “Despite claims by the pro-privatisation lobby that there is a legal requirement from the EU for this privatisation plan that has been shown not to be the case.<br />
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“State support for bus services has been significantly reduced in recent years, while workers have maintained, and in many cases improved, services. The reality is for a proper integrated public transport system to operate and cater for the needs of society and the economy it requires state support, not privatisation.”<br />
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McCamley added: “SIPTU drivers are clear that the privatisation agenda is really about reducing workers terms and conditions of employment and breaking up a successful public service so that profits can be generated for the private sector. These are moves that SIPTU members will resolutely oppose.”</em></blockquote><br />
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Then on page 16 & 17 of the newsletter there is another article titled<br />
<strong>A way forward in bus dispute</strong>And views from the Dublin Bus workers themselves.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/105264#comment3002592015-05-12T00:10:32+00:00THear from SIPTU bus strikers
Filmed on May Day at pickets around the city - SI...Hear from SIPTU bus strikers <br />
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Filmed on May Day at pickets around the city - SIPTU spoke with shop stewards and activists about #busstrike<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVztIjXDZIw" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVztIjXDZIw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVztIjXDZIw</a>