[PRESS RELEASE] Rail Users Group Condems Unofficial Strike Action By IE Drivers
 

Press Release

Rail Users Group Condems Unofficial Strike Action By Iarnrod Eireann Drivers

Date: 15th May 2006
From: Derek Wheeler, PRO, Platform 11.
Contact : (086) 3452651
Issued by: Platform 11 Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

While Platform 11, Ireland Rail Users Organisation condemns todays unofficial strike action in Irish Rail, we are not shocked by the decision of some Iarnród Éireann employees to take part in this dispute.

On April 11th Platform 11 issued a press release outlining how industrial relation problems are delaying the introduction to service of Iarnród Éireann's latest intercity train (see http://www.platform11.org/media/pres...&no=pr_06.html) Iarnród Éireann in response denied any industrial relations difficulties with relation to these trains. Todays action is proof that the industrial relations problems are far from solved and Platform 11 fears have been vindicated.

Once again rail customers have been left in limbo and Platform 11 are most disappointed that knowing these problems existed Iarnród Éireann failed to keep the public informed and insisted on putting a train into service in the full knowledge that industrial relations problems existed.

The new carriages were initially planned to be entered into service in December 2005, with successive Iarnród Éireann spokesmen pushing the date back first to January, then March and finally 9am this morning. Platform 11 is calling on unions and Iarnród Éireann to find a solution to their internal dispute so that rail passengers can benefit from the first new intercity carriages since 1984.

We call on the unions to embrace investment in rail transport without using it as an excuse to seek more money for it's members. Finally, we want to remind everyone that while Iarnród Éireann give their side of the story to the media and unions do likewise, who's worrying about the commuters that will be faced with disruption? It will be left to Platform 11, as the only independent representative body for rail users, to worry about the implications of any strike action on ordinary people.

ENDS

http://www.platform11.org/media/pres...&no=pr_07.html

I know this is going to sound really anal, but there are a few spelling mistakes there, "it's" where it should be its. Iarnród and Éireann are used a few times throughout the release but are spelt differently at different points.

I'll get back in my box now.

Good release though, it's a joke how the transport unions rape this country

This just showed up on breakingnews.ie (http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/05/15/story258755.html). Good work :-)

The fadas in Iarnrod Eireann drive me mad and leaving them out avoids funny extra characters, it was written sitting in Heuston without fallback on any spell checkers

The online version has the fadas as I can get them to display right
Ireland.com running it also
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/bre.../breaking3.htm

Mark, you also often use "where" for "were" (the past tense of "are"). It's fine for posts but should really be sorted out for press releases.

well done mark and committee !!

really good press release and tracking of the issue
delighted

incidently i got the 7:45(ish) train from galway this morning - no probs - lucky me!

Good work Derek

And where is Barry Kenny well he is in Dubai, yes the press man picked a nice day for holiday

Massive media coverage coming RTE and other outlets

Watch out for us
RTE 1pm radio and TV
Radio Kerry 1:30 pm
Today FM 5:10 pm on the last word

Ireland.com
Breakingnews.ie
Evening Echo, Cork
rte.ie

Stick it to them
 

Please beat a big drum on this one, this has wreaked havoc with my family life. I have no sympathy and no support for the train drivers or is it highway men and no matter how much they kick or strike; if in 4 years Irish Rail is privatised I'll be happy and thats a government promise I can really vote for. I'm am more sick of strike action than Rip Off Ireland.
If you have a dispute with your employer then hit them in the pocket, don't collect fees or drive less trains across the day,don't hijack my life. This action is obsolete in todays Ireland.

We are taking this as far as possible, remember we knew about this in April and issued a press release and a certain Irish Rail spokes person denied it

There are 4 distinct issues

1 Drivers
Sought reduced hours/higher pay
Rejected rightly by Labour Court

2 Guards
In line with European practice IE want to eliminate guards off the new trains and replace them with a train manager
Legitimate claim by unions but took far too long to resolve

3 New safety standards
Partly due to the new rail safety act and partly to formalise maters Irish Rail want to implement modern operational standards, drivers to receive a formal qualification (NVQ) and to be subject to a higher level of supervision, more frequent medicals, random drink/drugs tests etc. Note this applies across the entire company

4 Training
Drivers are now claiming lack of training on the new trains. Strange that as the control desk is the same and the locomotive on the back is the same

I'd love to sack them all but it ain't an option, privatisation is often used as a solution but the union position is so entrenched we would have to put up with strikes before that could happen, any way it would be the same staff, same agreements and managers on the far side so its no difference

Source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0515/rail.html

quite disapointed with you on the radio at one o'clock
 

you said the management are to blame as they failed to manage. come on ! there is only so much you can do with such a greedy union. we are all aware that they wanted a 33% rise for driving 33% longer darts. then they wanted more money for driving this new intercity trains. the labour court said hang on you already agreed to drive the trains. stop blaming management !! even if they waited till jesus himself arose , the union would still go on strike. oh and i was meant to get a 7 oclock to cork , <Admin EDIT> furious.


ADMIN: Please do not curse on our forum.

Simple issue is the passenger doesn't care once the trains show up

IE knew as early as last Wednesday that the driver of the 5:30 Cork Dublin would refuse to drive the CDE set, in fact there is no one in Cork willing to drive the new train in service, you don't need much thought to realise that would lead to chaos in Cork. Management knew this irrespective of the right or wrongs of there actions, you may be right but it doesn't imply its the right thing to do, as I was often told with respect to road safety no point being in the right and getting killed

The fact Irish Rail denied there was an issue when questioned is there a problem? You ask a straight question you deserve an answer.

The real truth has yet to come out but we all know its got nothing to do with the new trains, the unions are using the new trains as a bargaining tool, should the train go into service yes, but should it enter service if there is a reasonable chance you will have a walkout clearly not

I think it needs to be clarified that platform 11 completely oppose this strike as the article above fails to reflect the group stance

apologies for cursing. heuston's ticket staff just put me in such a temper.

I suppose you are right and that is sensible. But when it comes to public opinion you will have twenty seconds to get your point of view across through media outlets today. People won't be looking for a nuanced opinion. People want to know who is at fault , so they can heap scorn on them. So pick a side and vilify it.

hey why_does_planning_suck
feel free to tell your story - i have set up a special thread for anyone affected by this strike to let everyone know how this things affect real people


go to
Customer Issues Forum ->
Regional and intercity customer service issues ->
Strike - Have you been inconvenienced???? Tell us about it!!

The headline on the website is pretty clear:

'
Rail Users Group Condems Unofficial Strike Action By Iarnród Éireann Drivers'

That is an excellent point. The problem is, the public can hate the unions all they like, the unions won't care. If you can get the public to direct anger to management / government, change is more likely to follow through.

yes unions won't care , but i disagree with your conclusion. If you attack the unions then the next time (and there WILL be a next time!) it gives the management a freer hand. A union can only block some many things before people lose all sympathy. And from what i have read over the years : this is entirely the union wanting its cake and to eat it to.

And given that the unions delayed the rollout of the dart to greystones/malahide and then wanted more money for the longer dart , and then this. It is clear that there is a basic power struggly between the two. It also needs to be resolved before the kildare 4 tracking and the interconnector come on board.At that stage the entire city will rely completely on I.E. - do your bit to nip this in the bud !!

I said the "unions, the staff involved in the dispute and the management" are responsible.

Yes i know. Your statement was reasoned. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but by blaming both parties you have added nothing to the debate. The reader simply ignores your comments as waffle, even though they are the most appropriate. You have to take sides. people don't respond to those who sit on the fence. As a result you did not get your message through today , i am sorry to say. You , as an organisation , need to develop better media skills.

It would have been more impressive to quickly recapitulate all the various unions problems in the last few years , to give the row some context . Since the context lays most of the blame with the unions for being pretty greedy , you could then have said something like: 'without taking sides we hope that the parties can resolve their differences as soon as possible' The listener/reader would then have seen straight through to what you were really saying.

Or in the case that you think that the management are indeed the source of all these conflicts you could have spun it that way. It's messy but media stuff just has to be done that way. If you get another chance please try to refine your message! - still ******** furious.

We know a lot of finer details of what is going on and both the management and unions have been unreasonable

Myself and Derek have spoken face to face with management and staff, In fact I did today before 9am.

Fact is the drivers took unoffical action which we have condemned and continue to do so, we all know management are not without blame someone took a decision which lit the match under this and they did that knowingly leading to the mess

Its lose lose scenario, we can't sack the drivers

How unfortunate :mad:

yes you can sack drivers
 

As the leader of an american tour group said to me this morning (he later pointed it out on the news) , air traffic controllers in a us state went on unofficial strike before , and all were sacked the next day. They coped . somehow.

Trains are not as crucial as planes as there are (slower) alternatives , the bus. I strongly believe that the two train drivers who started all this ought to be sacked. I am not trying to definetively blame the unions , but what is needed is a bit of discipline in the company. This isn't the first time a few drivers ,went "ah no...... don't feel like working today".

Please don't mistake my criticism as a lack of support, i just feel that your message was lost by not being more concise, for want of another word. good luck tomorrow and the next day.

On Today FMs "the last word" show at 5 o'clock, I was very critical of unions. I quoted similar examples to todays dispute from as far back as 1976. I mentioned 50 years of this type of carry on and how unions appear to react to change in a very negative way. Radio Kerry got a similar blast earlier in the day and a warning that new trains on their line in 2007/8 may cause similar problems. The TV news took the "customer" angle.

I don't believe we are sitting on the fence. Our stance was critical of both sides and rightly so. Union members caused the strike and management failed to adequately manage the situation. They knew that there were problems. We alerted the media weeks ago and IE denied it. They gambled on a situation which back fired. Customers got shafted in the process. Given IEs history of industrial relations, it should not have been beyond a decision maker somewhere in there to call this one correctly and at the very least warn customers that widespread cancellation of services was possible and to check before they travelled. This is one area where management failed.

Overall Im very pleased with our media coverage today. Snippets from the last word piece were also featured on today fm bulletins. So someone sees some grain of news in what we were saying today.

Tomorrow morning its the Dunphy show on Newstalk 106. John Keenan is also on. And I believe METRO is carrying a good piece featuring P11.

Hit them where it hurts.
 

I find it strange that if this is an unoffical strike (as the unions cliaim) that it was so well co-ordinated.
Anway the simplest thing to do is for IE to lodge a claim for costs arising (loss of revenue) from todays action against the unions involved. If the unions deny any responsibility for the strike it then leaves the individual drivers who went on strike open for disciplinary action and target those individuals for costs arising ftom their actions.
When only the individuals involved and not the whole union are targeted for large sums of money solidarty gets very thin.
This tactic worked for KLM a few years ago against a wildcat strike, the deal done to prevent the strikers being found personally financially liable for the costs arising from the strike effectivly neutered their most militant union.

I think the old mobile phone had a part to play here, driver in Cork texts a mate in Dublin at 5:30 says himself and another have been suspended and Cork have gone out, damn text messages.

We need a New York style legal framework where you can't go out on strike full stop

If this was a limited action it would be easy but you are talking about a huge number of people and the drivers are not replaceable it takes 70 odd weeks to train them, suspend one and the whole show collapses

This is why we criticised IE management.
 

This is the examiners coverage of our original press release.



Tuesday, April 18, 2006 :

FRONT | IRELAND | SPORT | WORLD | BUSINESS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iarnród Éireann rejects staff row claims

By Eoin English
IARNRÓD ÉIREANN last night rejected claims that staff rows have delayed the introduction of a €117m fleet of carriages on the Cork-Dublin route. Platform 11, the rail passengers’ organisation, claimed the company’s plans to replace the role of train guards with the position of “train manager” on the 67 inter-city carriages has stalled the introduction of the carriages by almost six months.

They were delivered last July to be introduced into service by last December. But Platform 11 claimed that train guards are refusing to accept new work practices.

The bulk of the carriages, which have been undergoing testing since their delivery, are lying idle in Inchicore.

Platform 11 spokesman Derek Wheeler said: “Although coaches normally need to undergo testing before entering service, Platform 11 is aware of no safety issues which prevent their introduction.

“They are badly needed to ease overcrowding as well to finally removing the unreliable steam-heated 40-year-old carriages that are still being used on some services.”

Cork Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen said he was aware of a number of human resources difficulties delaying the introduction of the carriages.

He called on the company to resolve the situation.

“I was on the 3pm Dublin to Cork train last Wednesday. It was like the New Delhi express. It was grossly overcrowded, and in my view unsafe,” he said.

But Iarnród Eireann’s Barry Kenny rejected the claims. He said the first of the new carriages will be introduced next month.

“We are working through the union issues,” he said.

The carriages are going through the final phases of testing and commissioning and that process is also progressing well, he said.

“They were due to come into service this spring but the one difficulty we had was during the first train test when the train hit a cow.

“That knocked us out for a couple of months. But the first carriages will be rolling next month.”

The carriages will introduced incrementally and will deliver a total of 16,000 seats on the route. The journey time will be about two hours and 35 minutes.

But Platform 11 called for their immediate introduction.

Iarnród Éireann need to find an urgent solution so passengers can benefit from the first new inter-city carriages since 1984, Mr Wheeler said.

“Unions have a long history of resistance to improvements in service, from longer DART carriages to extension of services to Greystones and new trains on the Maynooth line.

“Equally as these carriages have been on order for years we do not see why Iarnród Éireann has not dealt with this issue at an earlier stage.”

I think the unions are trying to have things both ways. If you join a union you get a degree of protection and collective negotiation benefits, but you should have to abide by that union's rules. Union members should not be allowed to strike without official union sanction.

Employees should have a choice. Either join a union, but in doing so give up the right to act off your on bat, or forego the privilege of union membership, but don't expect any support from that union if you have an employment dispute.

that's the stuff! if the radio went that way then that is great. I was speaking of the rte coverage, and ireland.com . but i can see now that i was too harsh , the newspapers will put their twist on what you put out. well done.


that is a really intelligent idea. it out to be law.

Does anyone know will i be able to get to cork on the train tommorow , i still need to go !!!

I tuned into Derek on the Last Word today and I have to say well done.
Once more it is P11 that comes out as the voice of reason in all of this, today again we have seen P11's position in the concious of the media strengthened, and the fact that the forum site had its most users online ever today shows the message is spreading.

We won't know until about 6:45am tomorrow

I'd advise ryanair.com still seats available for tomorrow but fares coming back fairly nasty

Village magazine also ran with the original story last month.

New high speed trains delayed
by Emma Browne
Thursday, April 20, 2006


New high-speed train carriages for the Dublin-Cork route, originally promised for last December, will not be in use until May and their full implementation will not happen until the end of the year. The new carriages will coincide with the introduction of an hourly service between Dublin and Cork, and were originally meant to be fully implemented by the autumn.

According to the rail passenger's organisation, Platform 11, the delay is due to an industrial relations dispute. Iarnród Éireann want to replace train guards with a new position of train manager and a dispute over this is causing the delay. Iarnród Éireann say that delay is because they are still "testing and commissioning" the new carriages and organising the implementation for the new system with staff.

The first of the carriages was delivered last July as part of a €460 million investment programme, bringing 223 new carriages to Iarnród Éireann's fleet over the next three years. There are 67 express coaches for the Dublin-Cork route, at a cost of €117 million. The new carriages are the first to be bought since the "supertrain" carriages in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Emma Browne

Egg, Face, etc.

Ah, the bold Micheal O' Leary cashing in on misery. He better be careful or it'll be "Hanger 11" on his case.:D

lol, sounds like a dodgy 1970's airplane disaster movie :D

Good job on the last word Derek, came across well.

Hello to any new people browsing because of today's events. Hope you all stick around and contribute.

From Ireland Online

Rail users' body slams dispute
15/05/2006 - 10:38:48

Rail users' lobby group Platform 11 has condemned today's unofficial strike by a number of Iarnód Éireann drivers which have crippled rail services in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, but said it was not shocked by the dispute.

"On April 11, Platform 11 issued a press release outlining how industrial relation problems were delaying the introduction to service of the Iarnód Éireann latest intercity train. Iarnód Éireann in response denied any industrial relations difficulties with relation to these train," said a Platform 11 spokesman.

"Today's action is proof that the industrial relations problems are far from solved and Platform 11 fears have been vindicated."

The action this morning has led to the cancellation of all services out of Kent Station in Cork and is also affecting the Cork/Cobh commuter route and the Tralee line.

Drivers in Dublin’s Inchicore depot and in Limerick, meanwhile, have downed tools in solidarity with their Cork colleagues, leading to the cancellation of all services out of Heuston Station and on the Limerick line.

Iarnód Éireann said the drivers’ claim for more pay and fewer working hours had already been rejected by the state’s industrial relations machinery.

“Drivers are attempting to use a matter that the Labour Court has definitively ruled on in January, and use service improvements to customers, as leverage to secure concessions on completely separate issues,” the company said in a statement.

“This is all the more unacceptable given the company’s commitment to progress these issues substantively.

“The resolution of this dispute is in the hands of the drivers, who are currently taking this unofficial action, and Iarnód Éireann has called on them to return to work and ensure that our customers are not further inconvenienced.

“Iarnód Éireann would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this unofficial action.”

Dart services are operating as normal, as are commuter and mainline services in and out of Connolly station.

Latest News
 

Irish Rail warns of second day of disruption

15 May 2006 22:12
Irish Rail is warning passengers that they may face a second day of disruption tomorrow as a result of unofficial industrial action by train drivers.

Up to 35,000 rail users were affected today because of the dispute over the introduction of new trains.

Irish Rail says the last train has left Heuston Station for the night with the 7pm train to Galway - five other scheduled trains for later tonight have been cancelled.

Of a total of 50 scheduled departures from Heuston Station today only 13 trains left the station.

For further info contact Irish Rail at 1850 366 222

Article on the Dunphy show cut this morning due to time contraints. John Keenan was at Morning Ireland and could only give a few mins to Newstalk.

Until today it had looked like Irish Rail were winning this battle. Ryanair were planning to go from three flights a day to two flights a day after the Summer. Now the unions are encouraging passengers to make the switch to air. Way to improve your job security.