BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

Consider this, almost every aspect of the traffic crisis in Dublin has been publicly aired over the last year but most particularly this summer. We have all worried about the introduction of a new Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) through South County Dublin.

We have angsted about bus frequency, bus colour, the quality of comfort on the buses. We have argued where the LUAS light rail should run, where it should start, whether it should be underground, overground etc. Extensions to the DART, new roads, motorways and tunnels have all been on the agenda. One thing that has not been discussed, however, is the wages being paid to the bus and train drivers we are depending on to run these services for us.

Now Dublin Bus drivers have voted by a margin of seven to one in favour of taking industrial action. As An Phoblacht goes to print, the National Bus and Railworkers Union (NBRU) is meeting to agree a date to start its industrial action.

NBRU general secretary Peter Bunting told An Phoblacht that the drivers' action will begin with a series of one-day strikes, building up into a full week of stoppages.

Next Monday could also see a shutdown of Dublin's DART service as NBRU and SIPTU drivers pursue a separate wage claim.

At the heart of the bus drivers' dispute is a 20 per cent wage claim. Dublin Bus drivers currently earn between £204 and £268 a week. The £268 is paid after six years service.

Drivers work just over 38 hours on any five days out of seven. Workers who drive on Sundays get a double day's pay. The NBRU target wage is £330 a week, the average industrial wage.

Dublin Bus management have rejected the NBRU wage demand. Also silent on the dispute are the real management of Dublin Bus - the Dublin government.

Enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke is, we are told, being ``kept informed of developments''. Interesting though, that the 50% wage increase for TDs is being discussed in a much less contentious environment than the Dublin Bus drivers' 20 per cent claim.

Peter Bunting told An Phoblacht that he believes £330 a week is a realistic wage for drivers. He said bus workers are not being paid adequately. The drivers came from working-class areas and were only looking for a living wage.

Bus driving was a ``stressful occupation'' with ``huge risks for workers'' not found in other occupations who earn more money than bus drivers. Bunting said it was ridiculous that drivers in the private sector were being paid more to move non-human cargoes than bus drivers who were responsible for the safe transport of passengers.

Peter Bunting also tackled the issue of the drivers' wage claim being in breach of Partnership 2000. Bunting pointed out that the NBRU are not affiliated to the ICTU and that the Partnership 2000 agreement was being breached regularly in the private sector.

Bus Éireann drivers are also pursuing their own wage demands and are awaiting a Labour Court recommendation before deciding whether or not to ballot on industrial action.

The NBRU wage demand has been portrayed as being over the top and Dublin Bus has maintained that it will damage the public image of the company, losing customer confidence.

This is not what is really at stake. This dispute is about what is a living wage for Irish workers. As Peter Bunting says: ``I ask anyone, could they live on £268 a week at the top of a six-year scale to £204 at the bottom?''

CE cuts attack worst off

Over 600 Irish workers from the Community and Voluntary sector marched to the Department of Enterprise and Employment on Friday, 27 August, to protest against the decision of the Dublin Government to cut 4,500 Community Employment (CE) places. These cuts were not negotiated with the social partners and breach the terms of Partnership 2000.

This reductions have been condemned by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, the Congress Network of Unemployed Centres, the National Women's Council of Ireland, the National Youth Council of Ireland, CORI Justice Commission and the Community Platform

The organisations, have detailed a strategy to protect the long-term unemployed and the services delivered through CE. They want:

A government guarantee that funding for the current 37,500 CE places be maintained for 1999.

A government guarantee that ten 5,000 CE places scheduled to be translated into social economy jobs will only be phased put when the new jobs have been phased in.

A government commitment that no action will be taken to reduce CE funding below 37,000 places without agreement with the social partners on

the reallocation of the resources to programmes which give greater benefit to the long term unemployed.
The government must also restate a range of other commitments already entered into concerning changes in CE:

the provision of additional training places for under 25s, and in particular for lone parents;

that access to CE will still be open to those under25 and to those who have already spent three years in Community Employment where this is the best option available to them.

Sinn Féin Councillor Larry O'Toole, who attended the march along with other Dublin Sinn Féin councillors, said the cuts were ``an attack on the working class community.

It is this group in society that will be effected by the cutbacks. The government is working in conjunction with employers who want to push people into low paid jobs. Low paid jobs are not good enough.''