Newry Traffic Chaos

liaconn said:
Latrade

The reason we weren't out all day was because of the sheer numbers involved. Even with a roster we got very clear instructions fom our Union that we were not to block the streets or impede passers by in any way. It seems to be a case of damned if we do and damned if we don't. I'm sure if people didn't have shopping in Newry to give out about it would be 'angry mobs taking over the streets and refusing to let us go about our lawful business' or some other rubbish.

The point of the protest was withdrawing labour. A rostered picket was then organised to highlight the fact that we were on strike. We all lost a day's pay for the strike. We were not allowed take annual leave or flexi leave or anything like that. If Bus Eireann went on strike and staff lost a day's pay I honestly couldn't care less how they spent the day. The impact on me would be that the buses weren't running. I really think this thread is ridiculous. If we have to do another day's strike could you and other AAMers give me a list of 'suitable' activities I can engage in when not on the picket that won't offend any of you.
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I'm not passing any judgement and I agree with you on the damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. All I'm saying is I can understand why people felt how they did about the allegations.

If I'd had to take a days unpaid leave to look after a child because the school was closed would I feel "better" if the teachers were picketting and protesting? Probably, I wouldn't be jumping for joy, but I could see they were serious about the action. Would I feel happy if, as some reports have confirmed, they went up North to spend the day shopping? I'd probably feel a bit peeved to be honest.

Again, it's not justifying or condemning anyone, all I'm asking is whether you can see how some people felt negatively about the reports?
 
Im not passing any judgement either and I agree with Latrade and I also agree with Liaconn that you are damned if you do and damned if you dont, but -

The protest was:

Complainer said:
To send a clear message to Government that the public sector is not going to accept even more cuts.
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yet the news has reported massive shopping fests in Newry, (plus ancedotal stories of extremely busy turnover in city centre pubs and clubs the night before.)

Doesnt the above seem a little hypocritical? Plus the expenditure across the border means that even more money is being pumped out of our own economy *not that i disagree with people getting best value* but sending the money out of the economy is not going to help the situation and may mean even further cuts.

I do agree that people are entitled to do what they like with their time once they have completed their strike duties, but its difficult to give support when the perception is that the strikers had a nice day off spending money outside of the economy - when the strike was to protest further pay cuts.
 
Latrade

Well, given people's determination to feel negatively about the Public Sector no matter what, yes I'm not surprised at their reaction. I think, however, they're being ridiculous. The fact that we were prepared to lose a day's pay (and believe me that wasn't easy for a lot of us) surely shows how serious we were. Nit picking over how the picket was organised is just people looking for something to moan about, IMHO.
 
truthseeker said:
Im not passing any judgement either and I agree with Latrade and I also agree with Liaconn that you are damned if you do and damned if you dont, but -

The protest was:



yet the news has reported massive shopping fests in Newry, (plus ancedotal stories of extremely busy turnover in city centre pubs and clubs the night before.)

Doesnt the above seem a little hypocritical? Plus the expenditure across the border means that even more money is being pumped out of our own economy *not that i disagree with people getting best value* but sending the money out of the economy is not going to help the situation and may mean even further cuts.

I do agree that people are entitled to do what they like with their time once they have completed their strike duties, but its difficult to give support when the perception is that the strikers had a nice day off spending money outside of the economy - when the strike was to protest further pay cuts.
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But that logic would also apply to Private Sector workers talking about pay cuts, living in terror of losing their jobs etc but then spending all their money in the North. I presume the people who went shopping in Newry on Tuesday (be they Public Servants or people on leave to mind their kids) would have gone at the weekend or at some other time between now and Christmas if they hadn't gone on Tuesday. The reason there was a concentrated burst this week was because people were not in work on one particular day. I imagine this will be balanced off by less people going over subsequent weekends.

Also, one of the reasons so many Public Servants are shopping up North is because they can't afford to buy Santa presents etc in the South now that their pay packets are down with more loss to come. People want us to take pay cuts we can't afford and then want us to shop down here even though it's more expensive, although it's okay for Private Sector workers to go up North. I give up, really.
 
liaconn said:
Latrade

The fact that we were prepared to lose a day's pay (and believe me that wasn't easy for a lot of us) surely shows how serious we were.
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or looked at another day, ye had enough money to take the hit on a days pay and STILL go shopping up north!
 
liaconn said:
But that logic would also apply to Private Sector workers talking about pay cuts, living in terror of losing their jobs etc but then spending all their money in the North. I presume the people who went shopping in Newry on Tuesday (be they Public Servants or people on leave to mind their kids) would have gone at the weekend or at some other time between now and Christmas if they hadn't gone on Tuesday. The reason there was a concentrated burst this week was because people were not in work on one particular day. I imagine this will be balanced off by less people going over subsequent weekends.
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Private sector wages are not paid by the government though.
 
galleyslave said:
or looked at another day, ye had enough money to take the hit on a days pay and STILL go shopping up north!
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As I've already said, the reason people went up North was because they needed to save money given they've lost so much pay between levies and industrial action. They weren't buying extra stuff but stuff they needed to get anyway and would have had to pay more for down here.
 
truthseeker said:
Private sector wages are not paid by the government though.
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So there should be a bar on Public Servants shopping outside of the Republic?? How about social welfare recipients? Students getting their fees paid by the exchequer???
 
galleyslave said:
uh huh... so no booze cruise then eh *G*
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Oh sorry, we're not allowed buy in some drink for Christmas?? And source it at the best price??????????? Are we allowed buy some new clothes to wear, or have the odd night out? How about, as a taxpayer, you give us a list of stuff we're allowed to purchase and what are regarded as barred luxuries?

This thread is getting increasingly silly.
 
liaconn said:
Latrade

The fact that we were prepared to lose a day's pay (and believe me that wasn't easy for a lot of us) surely shows how serious we were. .
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What were you serious about? That you are not taking anymore cuts? And yet your unions come out that evening and admit that cuts/adjustments will have to be made in 2010. So you simply striked about the form of the cuts. Was it worth losing a days pay for that?
 
its all in the 'optics' truthseeker. We're told how tough things are and on the very day of the strike I dare say the dust cloud on the road to newry was visible from cork and kerry. Regardless of whether it was wives, spouses or off duty workers, or even strikers, it didn't look good.
 
Sunny said:
What were you serious about? That you are not taking anymore cuts? And yet your unions come out that evening and admit that cuts/adjustments will have to be made in 2010. So you simply striked about the form of the cuts. Was it worth losing a days pay for that?
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We were striking about cuts being implemented fairly. Yes, that was worth losing a day's pay for.
 
Actually, I'm going to come clean. We weren't really 'on strike'. We can all easily afford to lose a day's pay and just fancied a wet Tuesday off work. We called it a 'strike' even though strikes achieve nothing and are just a silly invention of the Public Service. We drew lots and a few eejits were picked to walk up and down with placards while the rest of us had a nice long lie in. Then, although we're exceptionally well paid, we thought it would be a great idea to queue for hours in traffic jams up North with kids fighting in the back seat and asking 'are we nearly there', not because we needed to save money (of course not) but because we just thought it would be a bit of gas. Then, when we finally made it to Newry and drove around for an hour with the windscreen wipers going like mad to try and find parking, we hit the shops. We completely bypassed the displays of nappies and cereals and pasta sauces which are quarter the price of at home, because we don't need to make savings on things like that. No, we just headed straight for the booze section and the boxes of chocolates and the clothes and furniture. Then we drove home in the rain, with the kids perched on top of all the crates of whiskey and boxes of Ikea furniture in order to catch the 6 oc news because we wanted to catch ourselves confirming to RTE reporters that yes indeed, we were all public servants shirking our picket duty and stocking up on luxurious inessentials in order to deprive the Irish exchequer of monies we could well afford to give them.
Our next cunning plan, (and this is in confidence AAMers) is a week long extravaganza of strikes (we wouldn't even notice a week's loss of pay). We're going to organise it for the week before Christmas so we can run it into the Christmas break and have loads of time off. We'll agree to come back to work for a half day, but that's only so we can have our Christmas party (we have to pay every penny for that ourselves but it hardly makes a dent in our weekly budget).
So anyway, fair play to you, you had our measure all along. There's no fooling you lot!
 
thought so liaconn. just emailed your post to Brian Lenihan, ICTU and Joe Duffy. Expect a reduction in pay from next week and phone call from RTE
 
liaconn said:
Actually, I'm going to come clean. We weren't really 'on strike'. We can all easily afford to lose a day's pay and just fancied a wet Tuesday off work. We called it a 'strike' even though strikes achieve nothing and are just a silly invention of the Public Service. We drew lots and a few eejits were picked to walk up and down with placards while the rest of us had a nice long lie in. Then, although we're exceptionally well paid, we thought it would be a great idea to queue for hours in traffic jams up North with kids fighting in the back seat and asking 'are we nearly there', not because we needed to save money (of course not) but because we just thought it would be a bit of gas. Then, when we finally made it to Newry and drove around for an hour with the windscreen wipers going like mad to try and find parking, we hit the shops. We completely bypassed the displays of nappies and cereals and pasta sauces which are quarter the price of at home, because we don't need to make savings on things like that. No, we just headed straight for the booze section and the boxes of chocolates and the clothes and furniture. Then we drove home in the rain, with the kids perched on top of all the crates of whiskey and boxes of Ikea furniture in order to catch the 6 oc news because we wanted to catch ourselves confirming to RTE reporters that yes indeed, we were all public servants shirking our picket duty and stocking up on luxurious inessentials in order to deprive the Irish exchequer of monies we could well afford to give them.
Our next cunning plan, (and this is in confidence AAMers) is a week long extravaganza of strikes (we wouldn't even notice a week's loss of pay). We're going to organise it for the week before Christmas so we can run it into the Christmas break and have loads of time off. We'll agree to come back to work for a half day, but that's only so we can have our Christmas party (we have to pay every penny for that ourselves but it hardly makes a dent in our weekly budget).
So anyway, fair play to you, you had our measure all along. There's no fooling you lot!
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Well written but don't get the point of your rant. Complainer was saying that the point of the strike was that the public sector wouldn't take anymore cuts. You seem to be suggesting that you would accept cuts but they have to be done fairly. I am simply trying to understand why you were striking. Its a simple question that neither you nor complainer has answered. Was it a simple protest strike against the Government or were you trying to achieve something?
 
I've a cunning plan. Lets all us private sector workers go on strike for the day and head up to newry. Then lets all have a giggle as the public sector tries to buy their petrol,fags and takeaways and what not with all the shops closed *g*
 
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