Union representatives and management at Dublin Bus were still refusing to talk to each other yesterday as 2,100 drivers withdrew their labour in a one-day stoppage.
The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) and the management of the company have not had a meeting for a week now, and have had no meaningful contact since an exchange of letters on Friday. The only occasions in the last seven days in which both sides have been around the same table has been for radio debates on the dispute.
Some 1,100 Dublin Bus drivers are members of the NBRU. Another 1,000 SIPTU drivers refused to pass their colleagues' pickets.
Speaking in the Dail yesterday, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, urged both sides "to enter into urgent negotiations, without preconditions or the threat of industrial action".
If the strike is not resolved in the next six days, there will be two further stoppages next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday. This would be followed by three the following week, four two weeks later and an all-out strike from March 12th.
The general secretary of the NBRU, Mr Peter Bunting, said yesterday he was not optimistic that meaningful talks would begin before the next round of stoppages.
He said the union would not enter into negotiations as long as management insisted that strike notice be lifted before talks could begin.
Dublin Bus is insisting it will not enter talks before strike notice is lifted. A spokesman for the company said yesterday that there was a need for an independent outside negotiator if talks were to progress.
The leader of the Amalgamated Trade and General Workers' Union, Mr Mick O'Reilly, will raise the dispute at today's meeting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions executive. He called yesterday for the direct intervention of the Labour Court in the dispute.
The Dublin City Centre Business Association said it deplored the stoppage, which it described as unwarranted and "an abuse of a privileged monopoly position".
The Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC) said the stoppage was "in clear breach of the National Agreement".
The confederation's director, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, said the average annual earnings for the "vast majority" of drivers, working a five-day, 39-hour week, was about £21,500.
Mr Bunting rejected IBEC's claims on drivers' pay. "There may well be drivers who earn in excess of £20,000 a year, but they have to work 60 to 80 hours a week for that. When the 48-hour maximum working week comes into play, that will eliminate the overtime," he said.
The drivers' claim had nothing to do with Dublin Bus having a monopoly. "If we're abusing a monopoly position, how come we have such low rates of pay and haven't had a strike for six years?"
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on traffic, Ms Olivia Mitchell TD, called on the Minister to intervene and "knock heads together."
"It beggars belief that the principals involved are not talking to each other," she said.
The basic wage was "pitifully low, but that is all the more reason for them to get into negotiations . . . Ultimately, the market will decide because Dublin Bus won't be able to compete with other companies looking for drivers unless they are paid a reasonable wage".
