Bus Eireann staff are set to exert their collective rights and strike from the 20th February in an indefinite industrial action in order to secure their pay and conditions. The strike action follows Bus Éireann’s acting chief executive officer Ray Hernan saying the company wanted to reduce its cost base by €30 million per year, with payroll costs accounting for 40 per cent of that reduction.

This strike, like all working class strikes, should be supported by all working class people, as it is in all our interests for better pay and conditions.

The workers of Bus Eireann fight for all workers in this strike and are acting in defence of public transport for the population. A win will set a precedent for future strike action and give confidence to other sectors of workers to demand their rights through direct action.

Minister for Transport Shane Ross said a strike at Bus Éireann would be “very damaging to the travelling public, the workforce, rural communities and the company itself”.

What is very damaging to the population of Ireland are the vicious cutbacks he and his government have imposed upon the people of Ireland in the interests of international and domestic capitalism--any concern for the people of Ireland can be rightly considered smoke and mirrors by his government.

Workers in Ireland have few avenues to settle disputes to their satisfaction, and considering that the neo-liberal capitalist classes, in cahoots with the government, are tightening the noose around the people's necks, squeezing them even harder for profits--a strike action is reasonable to say the least.

The syndicalist, or militant strike approach to unionism is one which protects workers and exerts power over the bosses-who only care for profits-- that no other tactic can equal.