PUBLIC transport will come to a standstill in Limerick on Monday, unless key issues regarding cutbacks are resolved at national level.
SIPTU have advised Bus Eireann to back down from implementing their “Cost Recovery Plan” without agreement from their members or they will join the National Rail and Bus Union’s picket on Monday.
Negotiations between trade unions and Bus Eireann management to protect as many services and jobs as possible collapsed last week as SIPTU withdrew.
The NRBU are furious that Bus Eireann have allowed these talks to collapse and have reactivated their mandate for industrial action.
Their assistant general secretary Dermot O’Leary of NRBU, said: “We and the public want clarification on which routes will be cut or changed in Limerick”.
SIPTU will also be putting a ballot of industrial action to their members in the county this week.
Their Limerick organiser Martin Corbett, said: “We will do anything to protect our members and Bus Eireann’s “Cost Recovery Plan” directly contradicts the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement as well the Payment of Wages Act”
Bus Eireann’s spokesperson Andrew McLindon, has defended the actions of his company, he stated, “we held negotiations over a six week period which were productive and positive but SIPTU failed to attend our final meeting and these negotiations collapsed.”
He argued, “We are in a situation where we are losing 500,000 euro per week and we have to address this and move forward with our cost recovery plan.”
