Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Protesting again



Today the protest took the form of a drive around Merrion Square through St Stephens green down to O'Connell St and back again. and there were a lot of scabs.
Taking things from an Irish angle this is what James Connelly said.
While your comrades are protesting any decent person would not work, after all it is not like we the strikers are looking for anything more than the people who choose to work.
The bus protest ended today and the buses rolled again,people hate to be delayed or to have their travel plans upset, but there was a holiday feeling around all morning with the buses gone. Some drivers decided to cross the line and take buses out, some of these buses had their windows broken, so they went back into the bus depot again.

Unlike the bus drivers we are not on an hourly rate, nor do we get sick pay or holiday pay. Though I do respect any workers right to withdraw his labor. If you do not make a stand standards will slip to a level where workers are being paid very badly.
Not even minimum wage, less than that.

Taxi drivers are protesting because there far too many taxis in Dublin, we have more taxis per head of population than anywhere in the world.
New York has around 12,500 cabs Dublin has around 16,000 our city's population is only 2 million.
It is like a pyramid scheme collapsing, everyone who lost his job has a taxi and for each new taxi that comes on stream the incomes of the rest falls, it has to happen that way there is a limited amount of work to go around.
To make ends meet drivers have to work in excess of 60 hours per week, some resort to cheating, Parking in front of Heuston station and walking up to the entrance,"Need a taxi?"(Touting)Or even cheating the passengers in other ways.

As the race to the bottom continues the vetting of new drivers has become non existent. When I applied for my PSV licence 20 years ago I had to wait for over 3 months to be vetted by the Garda,yet there are people driving taxis who were never vetted by the police, some are driving their cousins car which was rented from someone else and its the cousins licence which is on the dash, if you remark that the photo is a poor likeness they say "Its that Oil Of Ulay Ive been using". Brazen is not the word, they know that they won't ever get caught.

Cloning of cars is going on as well.

The taxi regulator sits in her multi million Euro office, with her staff writing great fictional diktats about the size of smoke rings on mars,or other subjects which bear no relevance on reality.These are printed in 7 colors on A1 sheets of paper and sent out around three times per year, at great cost to the taxi driver.

What taxi drivers are marching about in a nutshell is a listening ear, not a lot to ask. A responsive person who is capable of taking action.

A simple thing to ask for.

Its not a lot to ask that someone be accountable for shortcomings in their office.

Well we have local elections and European elections not to mention the other referendum which we voted against the last time.

A few months ago at night the Garda started stopping taxis in block and went through their details, within an hour 1/3 of all the taxis were gone off the streets.

If the number of illegal taxis is so high why is there nothing done about it?

The Garda don't care, its too much bother, they write tickets for taxis which are overhanging the rank while heroin is being sold 50 yards from where they are standing.

There is an interesting case going on at present where a convicted drug dealer was given a haulage licence which had been taken from him. He applied for the new licence in the Irish form of his name.(This is the same guy who was operating quite openly in the area with the local Garda givink him their blessing,the case is currently under investigation)
Well now the Garda in Ardee have to explain how they did not know that this was the same person as the one they were forced to arrest a few months ago.

I need to tidy the house so I will publish and be damned and I will edit it later.

2 comments:

  1. Well Dublin citizen you always have the choice to jump on your bike or walk. If you do think that a taxi driver is not paying tax you can report him to revenue and become an informer.
    Property developers and the legal system could also be in your sites.
    If you like to see money wasted go and have a look at the taxi regulators office on Fitzwilliam Sq. That cash could pay for a few nurses or special needs teachers for sure.

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  2. Just cos Mr dublin citizen doesnt pay tax doesnt mean to say the rest of us dont! Now Feck off and jump off the nearest bridge

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