Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) and the National Bus and Rail Union have announced that they will commence an all out strike on Bus Éireann next Monday 6th March, if management at the company carries out a series of threatened cuts which it outlined in correspondence issued to staff this afternoon (Monday, 27th February, 2017).
Detailed in this correspondence is understood to have been a list of cost-cutting measures to be imposed by Bus Éireann management; who feel that they have no option but to implement changes to work practices with effect from March 6th, that in turn will result in immediate cost savings.
are understood to favour the closure of three routes, one of which affects Co. Tipperary; namely the Dublin-Clonmel route, scheduled to close on March 12th next.
Other routes earmarked for closure include the Athlone-Westport route on April 16th and the Dublin-Derry route from May 28th. There are also expected to be a reduction in services on the Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Galway routes, with effect from March 12th next.
Management at Bus Éireann have also warned that there will be redundancies and an impact on future pay.
Several questions now arise re claims by Bus Éireann management that they have no option but to implement changes to work practices and workers salaries.
(1) How long did it take same Bus Éireann management to realised they were loosing €50,000 per day?
(2) Why are Bus Éireann vehicles no longer accepting company advertising, which in the past no doubt assisted greatly in supplementing bus travel shortfalls?
(3) Is their any point in rural residents paying taxes to central government into the future, when their entitlements as tax payers are being constantly removed or eroded, e.g. closure of public transport routes; lack of entitlements to equal Health Care; insufficient provision of road maintenance funding; pressures to install rural wind farms for electricity generation, which in turn leads to the wanton destruction of tourism potential ?
(4) The failure to attract even one small industry to Co. Tipperary in the past 12 years has forced massive emigration and migration from the area, which in turn has led to low public transport commuter figures.
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