Report from Dublin Busworkers Anti privatisation Public Forum last night

Thursday July 24, 2003 14:50

by Anti privatisation

Hi all,

Was at the Dublin bus meeting in Liberty hall last night. It was well attended with not only bus drivers and members of political groups but also some customers of Dublin bus who are worried about how the change will affect their lives. There was lots of fighting talk directed towards Seamus Brennan and the government in general. We have a Taoiseach who says he is against privatisation and is pro union, yet every day there seems to be new developments and new legislation from the government that suggests exactly the opposite.

Hi all,

Was at the Dublin bus meeting in Liberty hall last night. It was well attended with not only bus drivers and members of political groups but also some customers of Dublin bus who are worried about how the change will affect their lives. There was lots of fighting talk directed towards Seamus Brennan and the government in general. We have a Taoiseach who says he is against privatisation and is pro union, yet every day there seems to be new developments and new legislation from the government that suggests exactly the opposite.

It was stated that Dublin Bus made a profit of 3 million last year - this is obviously what the hungry wolves of the private sector are after and Seamus Brennan is happy to give it to them. One of the speakers, Mick O Reilly of the ATGWU sent out a rallying call to all the unions to row in behind them and fight the battle against wholesale privatisation to great cheers and applause. This will involve taking to the streets in marches and large scale strikes - the general strikes of 1913 led by Jim Larkin were even alluded to by one speaker.

I was glad that Denis Keane of my own union, the CPSU was there to speak in support of this and he wondered why some people looked slightly shocked to hear such militant sentiments being expressed at a union led meeting! It seems to me that such sentiments have been too long missing from such meetings. Now is the time for Irish trade unions to wake up and fulfill their true role - to protect the Irish workers and not to pander to government whims.

Of course what the government are trying to do with Dublin bus links in with the global trend of selling public services to large corporations - something that Brian of GR referred to in his speech - he talked about the privatisation of the water in Bolivia and the disastrous effects it has had. But we don't need to look abroad for examples of Globalisation - its happening right before our eyes and its time to start asking the government serious questions as to what its intentions are.

PS. Here is a copy of a leaflet I picked up on a bus on no - fares day
:

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| CIE UNIONS NO FARE DAY - JULY 18 |
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| |
| UNIONS' FARE DEAL: 0 cents |
| BRENNANS PLAN: No sense |
| |
| There has been a lot of talk recently about the state of our |
| public transport. As traffic gridlock costs more time and |
| money, a well co-ordinated, efficient and modern service has |
| never been more necessary. But some of the solutions proposed|
| by the Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan, make no sense.|
| |
| He wants to reform public transport by breaking up CIE and |
| allowing private operators to run services. He talks about |
| the need for competition to offer more choice to the |
| travelling public and better value for taxpayers. |
| |
| Sounds reasonable? Well, lets look at it more closely. |
| |
| Private operators must be better, right? |
| In Dublin he wants to start by hiving off a quarter of all |
| routes run by Dublin Bus to private operators who will bid |
| for the right to take over these routes. Will Dublin Bus be |
| allowed to bid? NO - in case they would undercut the private |
| operators and that would be bad for competition, right? |
| |
| Of course, the private operators won't bid for routes unless |
| they can make a profit on them. They can only make a profit |
| if they put up fares, get a bigger subsidy from the taxpayer,|
| cut back on vehicle maintenance or reduce staff costs. In |
| Britain they did all this and services got worse. |
| |
| Passengers were forced onto older, more uncomfortable and |
| unreliable vehicles. Many "uneconomic" routes disappeared |
| completely - leaving some people without any service at all |
| and others with a much reduced service. That's the last thing|
| this country needs when the Dublin region is overcrowded - |
| while many towns and villages in the West are being deserted.|
| |
| Competition must be better, right? |
| For all the talk about competition creating choice, most of |
| the private bus operators who started out on the great |
| privatisation experiment in Britain have not survived: only |
| three key operators remain. So they have become a near |
| monopoly - but a private monopoly - driven by profit and far |
| less likely to care about the social needs of a community for|
| transport services. |
| |
| As for rail, Britain again shows how short-sighted dogma can |
| wreak havoc. |
| Since the introduction of private operators on the rail |
| network, the quality of service has deteriorated rapidly, |
| prices have risen sharply and major accidents have multiplied|
| at a cost of many lives. |
| |
| The taxpayer must do better, right? |
| The ministers proposals will not even guarantee better value |
| for money for the taxpayer. Firstly the break up of CIE will |
| prove very costly. One estimate puts the cost a €500 million |
| - without putting one extra bus or train into operation. And |
| even introducing private operators doesn't mean that the |
| present level of subsidies will fall. For example the current|
| public subsidy to CIE ammounts to 30% of the total operating |
| cost. In London - Minister Brennans' model for privately |
| opperated public transport system - the public subsidy is |
| 50%. |
| |
| So whats left? |
| We want to see a modern and improved public transport system |
| capable of serving the people of this country in an |
| integrated way - so that bus, rail, Luas, DART and Metro |
| connect with one another. This will be virtually impossible |
| if they are all competing to take business from one another. |
| Wholesale privatisation will not deliver this kind of |
| service. Better co-ordination - and not fragmentation - is |
| the key to deceloping the public transport network. |
| In the coming months we will continue our campaign for a |
| better public transport system. We hope we can rely on your |
| support and that you will voice your opposition to the |
| Ministers proposals to your public representatives. |
| |
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|UNIONS FOR QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES |
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