Hi All, this rather amusing article appeared in yesterdays Sunday Independent, which is one of the largest circulating Sunday newspapers here in Ireland.
The background to this piece, is that the Irish national rail company, Iarnrod Eireann, was hit by an unofficial strike for the first couple of days last week due to an attempt to introduce some new engines on Monday morning. The reason for the strike was 2 drivers refusing to drive them unless they got a pay rise (even though they had previously got an increse for the forthcoming introduction as far as I can figure out!). Needless to say it caused mayhem for commuters and
no sympathy for the drivers or union who also seemed obliged to go out on strike in sympathy...
/Pat
Industrial relations at Irish Rail a model of inconsistency
BELIEVE it, or believe it not, Hornby introduced its new digital train control system last Monday morning.
The system includes two control units - the Select and the Elite - as well as a four- function locomotive decoder (measuring 10mm x 17mm x 3.5mm and retailing for less than €10) and a four-point decoder, incorporating a capacitor discharge unit.
According to its website, it was no surprise that the company was entering the "world of digital control" - but the decision to introduce two new control units "did surprise many". Obviously the fools do not know what awaits them when the toy hits Cork.
Leaving aside the decision to introduce two new digital systems (without consultation!), I cannot believe they are actually boasting about it in public.
One assumes that every Toymaster in the city will be picketed by kids who, while willing to continue driving the Flying Scotsman, don't feel that they have had time to adjust to this much vaunted "new" technology. Given the apparent levels of militancy at the moment there has to be a danger that the unrest could spill over into Scalextric.
Without labouring the point, after having had to travel to and from Ennis by bus on Monday and Tuesday, it was hard to shake off the view that the toy company's current slogan "Hornby Digital - the real way to run a railway" might actually have more truth in it than Iarnrod Eireann's always dangerous option: "We're getting there . . ."
Whether we will actually get there tomorrow morning is of course an open question. As you read this, there is probably a chap down in Cork tirelessly shoveling coal onto his open fire, pondering whether he is actually covered by last week's agreement.
After all, when an arrangement arrived at in 2000 can still be universally known as the "New Deal" (perhaps, in an unconscious way, harking back to the days of Roosevelt and the Mallard?) and fought over tooth-and-nail six years later, it seems optimistic to believe that tomorrow's trial introduction will necessarily go off without a hitch.
It may seem simplistic to blame two blokes in Cork for a strike which caused untold misery to hundreds of people traveling between Dublin and Ennis - not to mention tens of thousands elsewhere - but it is hard to believe that either the unions or the company would have walked into such a situation if they had had any warning of what was tohappen.
This was a thought I found myself pondering while chomping on my Mars bar during the 10 minute bus halt in Boris-in-Ossory - during a journey in which the coach, perhaps in Bus Eireann's own nod to a more genteel way of travel, avoided the motorway almost as comprehensively as the train drivers were contemporaneously eschewing rail.
It is clear though that industrial relations in the company are stuck in some sort of a time warp. It is only a few months since a union representative was on television with a straight face, arguing that Dart drivers were entitled to more money for driving the longer trains "under a 1984 agreement".
The legacy of ILDA - the Irish Locomotive Driver's Association - famed for doing exactly the reverse of that which its name suggests, obviously dies hard.
Perhaps, though, I am being too pessimistic.
Tomorrow morning, as the driver heads for Kent Station in the early dawn - flat cap on, flask in hand - perhaps he will run his index finger along the side of the new Mark IV, pat her paternally and whisper that she is "a beauty".
Frankly though, you might be better off checking out the flights.
John Smith
The background to this piece, is that the Irish national rail company, Iarnrod Eireann, was hit by an unofficial strike for the first couple of days last week due to an attempt to introduce some new engines on Monday morning. The reason for the strike was 2 drivers refusing to drive them unless they got a pay rise (even though they had previously got an increse for the forthcoming introduction as far as I can figure out!). Needless to say it caused mayhem for commuters and
no sympathy for the drivers or union who also seemed obliged to go out on strike in sympathy...
/Pat
Industrial relations at Irish Rail a model of inconsistency
BELIEVE it, or believe it not, Hornby introduced its new digital train control system last Monday morning.
The system includes two control units - the Select and the Elite - as well as a four- function locomotive decoder (measuring 10mm x 17mm x 3.5mm and retailing for less than €10) and a four-point decoder, incorporating a capacitor discharge unit.
According to its website, it was no surprise that the company was entering the "world of digital control" - but the decision to introduce two new control units "did surprise many". Obviously the fools do not know what awaits them when the toy hits Cork.
Leaving aside the decision to introduce two new digital systems (without consultation!), I cannot believe they are actually boasting about it in public.
One assumes that every Toymaster in the city will be picketed by kids who, while willing to continue driving the Flying Scotsman, don't feel that they have had time to adjust to this much vaunted "new" technology. Given the apparent levels of militancy at the moment there has to be a danger that the unrest could spill over into Scalextric.
Without labouring the point, after having had to travel to and from Ennis by bus on Monday and Tuesday, it was hard to shake off the view that the toy company's current slogan "Hornby Digital - the real way to run a railway" might actually have more truth in it than Iarnrod Eireann's always dangerous option: "We're getting there . . ."
Whether we will actually get there tomorrow morning is of course an open question. As you read this, there is probably a chap down in Cork tirelessly shoveling coal onto his open fire, pondering whether he is actually covered by last week's agreement.
After all, when an arrangement arrived at in 2000 can still be universally known as the "New Deal" (perhaps, in an unconscious way, harking back to the days of Roosevelt and the Mallard?) and fought over tooth-and-nail six years later, it seems optimistic to believe that tomorrow's trial introduction will necessarily go off without a hitch.
It may seem simplistic to blame two blokes in Cork for a strike which caused untold misery to hundreds of people traveling between Dublin and Ennis - not to mention tens of thousands elsewhere - but it is hard to believe that either the unions or the company would have walked into such a situation if they had had any warning of what was tohappen.
This was a thought I found myself pondering while chomping on my Mars bar during the 10 minute bus halt in Boris-in-Ossory - during a journey in which the coach, perhaps in Bus Eireann's own nod to a more genteel way of travel, avoided the motorway almost as comprehensively as the train drivers were contemporaneously eschewing rail.
It is clear though that industrial relations in the company are stuck in some sort of a time warp. It is only a few months since a union representative was on television with a straight face, arguing that Dart drivers were entitled to more money for driving the longer trains "under a 1984 agreement".
The legacy of ILDA - the Irish Locomotive Driver's Association - famed for doing exactly the reverse of that which its name suggests, obviously dies hard.
Perhaps, though, I am being too pessimistic.
Tomorrow morning, as the driver heads for Kent Station in the early dawn - flat cap on, flask in hand - perhaps he will run his index finger along the side of the new Mark IV, pat her paternally and whisper that she is "a beauty".
Frankly though, you might be better off checking out the flights.
John Smith
