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STRIKE ACTION BY Northern Ireland’s bus and rail service Translink is set to affect Dublin to Belfast Enterprise trains tomorrow and on Saturday.
Translink undertook strike action for a 24-hour period on 1 December, and further strike action is planned for tomorrow, Saturday, and next Friday, 22 December.
Iarnród Éireann has said that this 48-hour strike commencing tomorrow will cause “significant disruption” to the Dublin to Belfast Enterprise.
No cross-border services will operate, and Iarnród Éireann said “a limited Enterprise service will operate between Dublin and Dundalk only”.
Trade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu said their members voted in favour of the Translink strike over what they have described as a “pay freeze” which amounts to a real-terms 11% pay cut during a cost-of-living crisis.
In a joint statement, the unions said “full responsibility for transport disruption lies with Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris”.
They claimed Heaton-Harris, who set a budget in the continued absence of a functioning Stormont Executive, “engineered a pay crisis seeking to advance a political agenda” and has “refused to intervene to resolve the pay dispute”.
In a statement last week, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll backed the calls for Heaton-Harris to intervene.
“Public transport workers should not have to take strike in the mouth of Christmas. A proper pay rise is the least they deserve for the crucial service they provide,” he said.
“The British Government has the power to avert this strike and any disruption it might cause by intervening and resolving this pay dispute.”
In a statement yesterday, Translink said it was “disappointed with this decision by our Union colleagues which will disrupt bus and rail services that so many of our passengers rely on particularly at this busy time of the year”.
Translink added that it is “fully committed to enter into pay negotiations one the budget issue has been resolved” and added that this “needs to be resolved at NI Executive level”.
Translink also stated that strike action will “only exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink and damage the livelihoods of many businesses and their staff in the retail and hospitality sectors who depend on the busy Christmas period”.
Both Translink and Iarnród Éireann have apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Below are the following service arrangements that will be in place tomorrow, Saturday, and on 22 December:
-With additional reporting from Press Association
For a country that is supposedly booming it sure has a lot of crumbling infrastructure.
@The Guru: The management of our water systems has deteriorated altogether since the billing company i.e. Irish Water took over.
@David Corrigan: Letting the water infrastructure deteriorate was going on long before IW came into being. It was deliberate, it was planned. They knew they would need justification for IW and the scams whatever government would be in power.
@David Corrigan: The water system started to deteriorate straight after Fianna Fail bought the 1977 election by doing away with rates! They said that 2% of motor tax would be used but they did not increase motor tax so there was no money! FF still don’t care about infrastructure they just want power.
@Dave Doyle: Its a disaster of epic proportions.
@David Corrigan: not really true, much as I dislike the whole operation and how it was conceived. It’s just that decades of neglect and under-funding are now coming to light
@David Corrigan: I’m no fan of Irish Water but that is not true. It was crumbling long before they even became a thing. The formation of it, and the subsequent tax issue is what drew it into the public eye.
Irish Water has also consolidated a lot of contracts which were handled at a county board level previously into national ones, saving money for the country. Their leakage program is also promising.
The whole thing was a debacle, don’t get me wrong, but nothing is ever black and white, all good or all bad.
@The Guru: money is paying off debt rather than being invested in infrastructure.
No surprise that only 18% of our waterways are considered clean. Would love to see the criteria for IW bonuses.
If you voted FG, you voted for infrastructure funding to be spent on unneeded water meters and a billing company. Remember that.
@The Risen: sur didnt the shinners and ffers agree to water charges originally and then flipped to the other side to secure votes
I walk the coast road in Clontarf each evening the smell is terrible it makes the locals stick there heads even further in the air !
Build that wall!
The poor sea creatures having to deal with human sh#t…pun intended.
the set up of irish water stinks to high heaven !
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