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AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of people do not support the actions of striking Luas workers, according to a new poll.
The Dublin tram service was disrupted again last weekend as Luas drivers engaged in their latest industrial action with more strikes planned later this month.
Now a new poll has found that 80% of people do not support the industrial action, which centres on workers’ pay demands.
The Claire Byrne Live/Amárach Research poll found that just 12% of people support the strikes, while 8% said they don’t know.
The clear opposition of the general public comes after the long-running dispute has seen drivers go on strike for seven days this year, including Easter weekend.
Both Siptu and Transdev, which operates the Luas, have been negotiating a deal since August 2014, without any sign of a breakthrough.
The dispute took a turn last Friday when the head of the Workplace Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey made controversial remarks about the industrial action on Morning Ireland.
Mulvey said that Siptu did not contact him to explain why Luas drivers rejected a deal from the tram’s operator, Transdev.
He said most union representatives would get a “standing ovation” if they returned to their members with the proposals put forward by the tram operator.
The comments led to calls for Mulvey’s resignation by the Siptu president Jack O’Connor with the heightened rhetoric doing little to increase the prospect of a deal being reached to end the industrial action.
Drivers have revised down their pay claim, but say that they are being asked to “pull the ladder up” after themselves and take a pay rise at the expense of new drivers.
Last month, the WRC made recommendations that would see experienced drivers’ salaries move to €50,000 from €42,247 by 2019. This was short of the 27% raise they had requested.
More critical to many workers was the fact that a starting salary for a new Luas driver would have dropped to €29,080 from €32,311 under the WRC proposals.
The proposals were rejected by workers who now plan further strike action on 23 and 24 April.
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Glad I don’t know anything about utorrent, vpn and peer blocker.
@B9xiRspG: I also don’t know what Usenet is, it might be safer than torrents but I don’t know anything.
@purple rain: I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is.
@Drew P. Baulsach: neither do the banks
@Ian Shannon: brilliant comment.
@Drew P. Baulsach: brilliant
Stop ripping people off and they won’t pirate. Simple.
Greatest things that have encouraged people not to pirate have been Netflix and Spotify. All they had to do was provide entertainment for a reasonable amount instead of at an absurd mark up and suddenly people were more than happy to pay for it.
Meanwhile I’m gonna continue my practice of paying for stuff that’s reasonably priced but streaming stuff I’d never switch to Sky (and have to buy a satellite dish for) in a million years coz they hold it ransom on Atlantic.
Also; who in the ever-loving still downloads. Stream away!!!
@Bryan Kelly:
download a movie and in two years time buy the dvd for 3 euro……..conscience sorted.
@Bryan Kelly: You could add Steam for gaming to that list as well. There is certainly a point of price and convenience where most people will pay rather than torrent.
@Bryan Kelly: Don’t know why anyone would stream tbh, you need fibre optic to stream decent quality, amaze me people stream crap quality content and then buy 4K TVs to stream it on lol
@Bryan Kelly: well said
@Philip Mckenna: Get onto your TD about that high speed they promised the whole country and have now pushed back a couple decades.
No problem up here.
4K TV? Oooh look at me the millionaire!
@Philip Mckenna: ive a bog standard 100 mb connection and stream in 1080p perfectly so not sure what you mean
@Rochelle: Steam right? You’ve got EA releasing games where you don’t even get the full game and have to pay extra for it as DLC. Or remember that whole No Man’s Sky scam? And they wonder why sales are down…
You wouldn’t steal a car. True, but if I could download one…
@Dave Malone: 3D printing?
@Fake Avast: They’re also replicating guitars (and everything else). Gladly a few people here were caught by sub standard materials and tradesmanship. €2500 guitar for €250 euro delivered. Alarm bells!
It’s a victimless crime, like punching someone in the dark.
@Professor Goodfeels: and a victimless crime is??? Not a crime.
@Tom Phelan: yawn
@Fake Avast: or he’s quoting The Simpsons
Insurance Companies have been streaming the entire population for years…
@Tomas: Thats allowed in ireland
Excellent article Rónàn. I’m still none the wiser if I’m breaking the law, but it appears Ray Foley is talking bollox. Nothing new there.
Can i still be a priest
Beats paying the ridiculous cinema prices
Mad what can be achieved on the line today
So the article says ‘without permission or without paying’ How do I know if I have permission? I once went through a no unauthorised entry sign…got stopped and told the security guard that I got authorised by my mother (sitting in the seat beside me). So who do I get authorised by and how do I know they are actually the person to grant authority? As regards paying….so my payment to help run a website I download a movie from….that is payment, right?
Anyone else think this article could have been shortened? A bit repetitive.
As for IPTV (get on it)… Guilty!!!!
Very good article
‘What people mightn’t realise is that by streaming illegal content, a user’s computer is still making a copy of it, even if that copy is temporary in nature and stored on the computer’s cache.’
That’s not always true. And is a misrepresentation of cache.
What if someone was an avid cinema goer and Blu-ray collector that tried out a few downloads that they received to see of they wanted to experience it in the cinema? Does European law not dictate we must receive a service before we pay for it? Or somerhing along those lines!
If the eejits who own the movies started releasing them online themselves for a small fee the peer to peer industry would evaporate over night.
Think Netflix for cinema releases !
All the big major companies were caught of guard with the net, it came on so quickly and it 2 late now lol, I see there clamping down on YouTube n a big way ,that’s a great example of how they were caught unawares,stuff u could watch for free on YouTube until while back was brilliant
We are forced by law to pay for a TV license. That fee goes to pay for movies and shows on telly from America. We can record them and watch them whenever we want. Why should we not be able to download or stream those same shows as having a copy to watch at home which we already pay for and is legal and basically is the same thing.
have your say