Rail strike in Cork

[Derek Wheeler]

PRESS RELEASE

5th September 2006

Issued by : Platform 11. Irelands National Rail Users Organisation.

Contact : Derek Wheeler. Communications and Media Officer. Tel : 086 345 26
51

"UNOFFICIAL STRIKE ACTION IS CONDEMNED BY RAIL USERS ORGANISATION"




Platform 11, Irelands National Rail Users Organisation, condemns today's
unofficial industrial action by maintenance staff in Cork.Yet again an
internal dispute has caused the cancellation of trains and affected
thousands of people. Time after time, customers must bear the brunt of
unofficial disputes by Irish Rail staff. Platform 11 calls on management ,
unions and staff, to resolve their differences within the well defined
industrial relations machinery and to do so without disruption to the
public. Furthermore we once again restate our demand, that the Minister for
Transport, Mr. Martin Cullen, launch an immediate review of Management
practices and industrial relations procedures within Irish Rail. This is the
third dispute in the Cork area in 4 months. Platform 11 believe that Irish
Rail management have failed to deal with many industrial relations issues,
in a manner that is professional and to the benefit of staff and most
importantly the customers of Ireland's rail network.

Platform 11 is the only voice for rail users and we will continue our
representation in order to highlight the major inconvenience caused to rail
users by petty disputes and management inertia. There will be winners from
this dispute, but the only losers, are the many passengers who had their
transport plans ruined.

ENDS.

[Mark Gleeson]

http://www.platform11.org/media/pres...&no=pr_09.html

affected
bear the brunt

[Navan Junction]

Unofficial industrial action at Iarnrod Éireann has caused disruption in Cork for a second consecutive day.

The company said the "lightening unofficial industria action" by a small group of track maintenance staff in Cork, is affecting services at Kent Station in Cork city and the Cork-Cobh route.

Bus transfers are in operation on the Dublin/Cork route and

Line maintenance staff took action yesterday after they were asked to carry out duties they believe not to be in line with their responsibilities.

Iarnrod Éireann has set up an information line for customers on 1850 366 222.

© The Irish Times/ireland.com

[IHIR]

Originally Posted by Navan Junction

Line maintenance staff took action yesterday after they were asked to carry out duties they believe not to be in line with their responsibilities.

This was on the RTE news as to why the staff went on strike - "Line maintenance staff downed tools yesterday after being asked to do work which they judged to be line renewal and not line maintenance".

I work in private sector and watching the shambolic disgrace that is Irish rail is so frustrating. These guys are taking the complete mick (along with the striking taxi drivers ). I cant believe they get away with being able to keep doing this. I am just back from travelling by train in France and Italy and it was magnificent, even on regional trains, where "2nd" class is better than 1st class in Ireland. Eurostar was amazing.

Given that P11 frustration exceeds mine by a huge factor, can I ask if anything will actually be done about this by govt or Irish rail? Severe disciplinary procedures need to follow on the workers but also the management and the head guy should resign in shame alone. It really is beyond all jokes at this stage. Any comment from Martin Cullen in all of this as well? Surely he has done (or not done) enough to warrant a sacking now?

Election 9 months away - I think its a prime time for Platform11 to get even more limelight.

[Mark Gleeson]

What we know is all the drivers have reported for duty

Services are suspended in Cork Kent since there is no signalman, we have to wait for the next shift change to see what happens

We are very frustrated, the media don't seem to care what people forget is up to 800,000 journeys a year are carried out Cobh Cork Mallow the vast bulk are commuters, thats more than Dublin Kildare

Difference between track renewal and track maintenance is the fact its new versus old parts, its manual work but the basics are simple lift one part out and replace it with another. If the engineer elects to renew a section instead of patching its his call and should mean no difference. Of course thats the union position, management in Irish Rail will have a totally different version of events as they always do.

As far as I am aware no line renewal is ongoing in Cork daytime since such would require closure of the line, you cant crane in new track otherwise

[weehamster]

NOT AGAIN.

God help me for saying this but it looks more and more like that privatisation is the only answer for Ireland to achieve the goal of having a high quality train service which has been bog standard in the most of the EU for decades.

It is so clear now that IE aren’t capable of doing what the company is supposed to be doing, providing the people with a good and reliable nationwide rail service. And I don’t believe a simple change of management will do that job.

I believe now is the time to allow somebody else to run it and run it professionally in the 21st century.

P.S. heres a suggestion, get Deutsche Bahn to run it for us and the management can only be from Germany

[Mark Hennessy]

By renewal, are they talking about the Midleton line at all?
I really can't believe that these staff haven't been disciplined, what is it with the Cork area in IE. More bolshie than Russia back in the day.

[Mark Gleeson]

It has not gone unnoticed that the last three 'incidents' have been Cork based, there is something very rotten down there

Privitisation won't solve this, sure sack the lot of them, then you ain't got no staff. There are at least 5 separate strikes/threatened strikes ongoing in the UK right now

It ain't Midleton to best of my knowledge

[Colm Donoghue]

Why would a signal man be concerned?
secondary picketing to unofficial action?

[Mark Gleeson]

Strike is over as of 10am

Faced with a picket staff may choose not to pass

IE website has not been updated

[Mark Gleeson]

Beat IE to the news by 12 minutes

How on earth can we consistently manage to have more up to date info??

[PaulM]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Privitisation won't solve this,

People don't behave like that in private companies.

This does seem to be a deep routed issue. Obviously there is a deep routed issue with management relations.

Management don't behave like that in private companies.

I think it is more a case of IE needs massive reform. The strike option needs to be hit on the head and staff need to be punished for unofficial strikes. If the union are not backing them for it there is something to be said for the staff.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Privitisation won't solve this, sure sack the lot of them, then you ain't got no staff. There are at least 5 separate strikes/threatened strikes ongoing in the UK right now

Without wanting to start another ideological debate about this....

In a private company the threat of sacking is enough to keep most employees acting reasonably. Staff in semi states and the civil service know that its almost impossible to fire them, not just because they have a monopoly on an important service, but because of the way they have evolved in Ireland.

Privatisation wouldn't solve everything but it would go a long way towards curbing childishness like this.

[Mark Gleeson]

Lets see, the following private rail operators in the UK are either on strike or threatened with action

Virgin Cross Country (train managers at weekends)
Gatwick Express
Heathrow Express
South West Trains (one day stopages, unions unhappy that managers are driving some trains during strike)

Its strike central in the UK, privitisation doesn't solve the problem since all the agreements are in place already, in fact fragmentation makes it worse since unions play one company against another

We are dealing with a closed industry where people are trained to do a specific safety critical role, the ability to sack someone is heavily restricted in the case of a strike since sacking someone will then leave you short and results normally in all out war, its a no win

The strike last May was in effect a lock out by management, the staff presented themselves for duty and where refused work owing to a twisted game played by Irish Rail management

Primary concern is the restoration of normal service as soon as possible, sacking the strikers won't deliver that

[PaulM]

I propse we hide under a big pile of coats and hope everything turns out ok in the end. Clearly nothing else can be done.

Alternatively, they discipline the staff in question, like a private company would do. I don't know and I don't care what the issues are, fact is it is the public, who pay the wages of management and staff who are suffering.

As their customers and employers, something needs to be done about it. Training replacement staff would probably help. This crap has to stop.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

We are dealing with a closed industry where people are trained to do a specific safety critical role, the ability to sack someone is heavily restricted in the case of a strike since sacking someone will then leave you short and results normally in all out war, its a no win

Plenty of people work in a specific safety critical role and yet manage not to strike when they don't like the colour of their ATC tower displays, or the size of their cruise liner. They don't strike because they know they'll be fired for not following the proper grievance procedures. Yes, people do strike in the public sector, I'm not completely naieve, but it has less of an impact and usually only happens after they have tried to resolve the problem the proper way, the civilised way.

Primary concern is the restoration of normal service as soon as possible, sacking the strikers won't deliver that

In the short term, yes, restoring service is all important. In the long term, giving in to the strikers every time they decide to take the day off is a terrible move and only leads to more problems.

IE might not be blameless in all of this but no-one else is going to fix their problems. Either they start acting like a company and treating their employees as that and not as gods, or we'll never see an end to this.

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by bhayes

affected
bear the brunt

Point taken. Edited above.

[Mark Gleeson]

UK protocol for this morning would have been to send a trained manager to the signal box and for him to take over. Irish Rail do have what are known as contingency drivers, people who normally work at a desk in the company but drive for a number of hours per month, basically to cover for big events etc I'm not sure to what level that has been used

Point to note in the UK SWT turned out every manager they had to drive during a strike, unions went mental mangement said customer service, unions said strike breaking. Industrial relations is a nightmare of a place

Now IE management have admitted that the work was outside normal but the staff had not contested it until now, legally the staff could have a solid case if by the letter of the contract they are within there rights to refuse, can't sack them now can you?

Clearly a change in management in Cork and in IE's HR department would be a good place to start

[markpb]

If they were asked to do a job they're not reqired by contract to do (ignoring for a minute that this is quite common in the private sector), then they should have immediately contacted the company and gone through the normal grievance procedures.

I can't imagine for a minute that the IR official GPs are to down tools, go on unofficial strike and cause a suspension of services. If they were right, why didn't the union support them?