Sir, - I am one of the many Irish Rail passengers who were affected by the train drivers' unofficial wildcat strike over the weekend. I am old enough to remember the bad old days when bus and train services were routinely disrupted over petty grievances. I fully support the right for workers to withdraw their labour. However, it this a hard-won privilege that should be kept in reserve as a weapon of last resort.
No reasonable person can defend the cavalier, "I'm all right, Jack" attitude displayed by members of the ILDA. It seems that these drivers want to perpetuate the old traditions of treating the travelling public, whose taxes actually pay their wages, with the utmost disdain and contempt.
I wonder would these wildcat strikers be so quick to abuse passengers and the State if they were billed individually for the lost revenue to Irish Rail and the cost to Bus Eireann of putting on extra busses, and sued by the public for time lost and inconvenience caused in trying to arrange alternative transport at short notice
I hate to say this, but maybe Ronald Reagan was right in the way he dealt with the air traffic controllers all those years ago. - Yours, etc.,
J. Darcey, Lennox Street, Dublin 8.