Work to rule action

[Tess]

We were on a very crowded train very early this morning due to a cancellation of an earlier train. The ticket man told us it was because of a work to rule action at the moment - drivers are not happy because they have been asked to drive trains with extra carriages.

He said that they do not want this getting into the media because the Government will almost certainly privatise Iarnrod Eireann if this gets out. The government are dead set on privatising the company and its the way to go. Does anyone have any good contacts in RTE?

Some mainline trains are being cancelled and the only certain services are the commuter trains. There will also be delays. The 17.35 service to Carlow has been cancelled every day so far this week.

Thanks Ticket man. I must say you are doing a really good job of keeping this quite.

[Mark Hennessy]

Hi Tess,

Welcome to the board.

We are well aware of this situation at the moment
http://forum.platform11.org/showthre...0540#post30540

[Mark Gleeson]

http://www.railusers.ie/news/news.ph...2008&no=3.html

Its got nothing to do with train lengths, thats utter rubbish, Irish Rail management in fact have little interest in dealing with legitimate grievances.

I wouldn't believe too much of what non driving staff are saying. The drivers don't want to strike. Plenty of notice was given, votes taken etc

I can't name names in public but anyone who knows industrial relations in IE will know where the trouble lies and it ain't the staff. Anyone who has read the book about the IDLA strike will know that IE can play dirty when it suits

[KSW]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Its got nothing to do with train lengths, thats utter rubbish,

We are all thinking this while reading the thread no doubt!!!!!

[Laois Commuter]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

http://www.railusers.ie/news/news.ph...2008&no=3.html

Its got nothing to do with train lengths, thats utter rubbish, Irish Rail management in fact have little interest in dealing with legitimate grievances.

I wouldn't believe too much of what non driving staff are saying. The drivers don't want to strike. Plenty of notice was given, votes taken etc

I can't name names in public but anyone who knows industrial relations in IE will know where the trouble lies and it ain't the staff. Anyone who has read the book about the IDLA strike will know that IE can play dirty when it suits

So what are these legitimate grievances? If they are legitimate, why is there a wall of silence (on both sides)? If the grievences are legitimate, then surely the Unions should be shouting from the rooftops - if not, then IE should be doing the same.

I spoke to customer services at Heuston last night, and was told that the 0630 this morning wouldn't run due to "Operational difficulties". Playing dumb, I asked how they could predict the train was going to break down, or engineering work over-run, or a tree falling on the line, as they are operational difficulties. Said staff member said it wasn't that, so when I asked what it was, said they were told "operational difficulties". So how could she rule out my options? In short, lying to customers will fill the M7. Train was noticeably quieter today than Monday, although that may be due to the mid-term break.

I don't know what thhe issues are - but complaining about driving a train at 1320 rather than 1425 on the Westport line (or whatever) seems a sure way to invite ridicule. Is a train harder to driver earlier on a Sunday? Maybe, as mentioned on here, overtime is required - but having worked 30+ years in the transport industry, front line and back office, I have never known a situation when that isn't the case, and there are always volunteers if the reward is right. So I don't buy that excuse either.

In short, in order to get some quality time at home, I am now missing my lunch break. Thanks IE/ILDA/SIPTU. Get yourselves ******* sorted.

LC

[KSW]

Originally Posted by Tess

He said that they do not want this getting into the media because the Government will almost certainly privatise Iarnrod Eireann if this gets out. The government are dead set on privatising the company and its the way to go.

PRIVATISE I think is the way to go, We all had enough of IE with their fare differnces, To much padding on timetabled services, Its customer service the list is endless.........

[Mark Gleeson]

Firstly as you can well see Irish Rail are in full denial of the issue mode at the moment

There is a formal list of issues, Phil Flynn hammered the agreement out. They can be a little technical but its classic pay and conditions stuff, there are issues to do with safety standards and so on. Safety is the first concern of everyone. They are legitmate issues whether or not the drivers are right is a different matter

One good thing if I can say that is 10 years ago the whole show would be out on the picket line at this stage, trains are still running, there are no pickets, there is no strike and the vast majority of trains are still moving which is a good thing compared to the alternative of nothing.

All we can do is expose the less than honest information Irish Rail are providing and the lack thereof. We are extremely limited in the information to hand but we have a list of cancellations online which IE don't

End of the day if Irish Rail was adequately staffed there wouldn't be a problem, running a company on overtime is not a sustainable way to provide a service, overworked staff isn't safe nor is it good for morale, which might explain the glum faces in Irish Rail

Of course we don't want the trains cancelled but we are stuck in the middle and have no say

[Laois Commuter]

Originally Posted by KSW

PRIVATISE I think is the way to go, We all had enough of IE with their fare differnces, To much padding on timetabled services, Its customer service the list is endless.........

You've never travelled on english trains, have you......

Padding : compare IC times St Erth - Penzance and back ( www.nationalrail.co.uk )
Fare differences : Multiple ways of re-booking to save significant cash.
Customer service : You really should have tried the now defunct central trains....


LC