75 thoughts on “Playing Fast And Luas

  1. Tish Mahorey

    “So, me and a designer friend of mine have put together a set of alternative ads for the always-on-strike LUAS.”

    Are you proud of that snide rubbish?

    1. Tony

      Here Niamh – I laughed. Bonus points for annoying snotty Mahoney – the prancing design King

      1. Otis

        You know, if you read Tish’s posts, he’s not that much of a pr1ck really. He does though have an unfortunate tone and comes across as an offensive little gobsh1te. I’d imagine he’s alright in real life.

        1. rory

          Why do people assume Tish is a man?
          Well maybe Tish is, but my brain keeps thinking that Tish is a female name.

    2. Jack Ascinine

      I’m proud of her snide rubbish. Wooo hoooo! Rubbish on rubbish makers. Anything to piss a LUAS driver off.

  2. The Real Jane

    Thank goodness someone is putting their professional skills into advertising against union action. What a relief that we don’t have to rely on implied threats from employers any longer!

    Also, the assumption that everyone would think that Niamh & Friend are just brillint and that no other point of view exists is a bit dispiriting. We’re not all that kind of twerp.

    1. Clampers Outside!

      ……….” the assumption that everyone would think that Niamh & Friend are just brillint and that no other point of view exists”

      Ah now, in fairness…. the only assumption being made there was by yourself.

      Isn’t that so.

      1. The Real Jane

        Well, I may have phrased that poorly. There is a large body of anti-luas-driver opinion and I suspect Niamh & Pal imagined that this was the only point of view and that their posters would go down very well on that basis.

  3. Rob_G

    I didn’t find them that clever or inventive, tbh, but it is refreshing to see Broadsheet publish something that goes against their dominant narrative a little bit.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        Thanks for not charging me rent for living in your head, you creepy little weirdo.

        1. Kieran NYC

          Good boy. Feel free to commence your desperate, tedious, patronising trolling of anyone and everything who might not agree with you 100%.

          1. MoyestWithExcitement

            Uh huh. Because ‘they’re probably trying to wind up the guy I’m weirdly obsessed with’ is your honest held opinion which should be respected and is most certainly *not* trolling. You’re a silly little man.

          2. Anne

            What’s the time now in NYC – 9.08am? (UTC minus 5 hours)
            You’re on early Kieran aren’t you?

            In the door, straight onto Broadsheet.. you’d have to try to look more industrious than that in NYC I thought..

          3. Eliot Rosewater

            Hmmm, specifically mentions someone, then, when they reply, suggests that they will now begin a ‘desperate, tedious, patronising trolling’. And the award for most ironic post of the day goes to …

  4. kellma

    Ah i find them amusing. Each to their own….. Do one with some French in it. A nice little reference to the nation that loves to strike…. Those Luas boys have “nuttin” on them….

  5. Smith

    Copywriter Niamh and her designer friend are ‘creatives’. Pity they don’t go on strike.

      1. Lordblessusandsaveus

        No he means the stock shots of advertising sites which designers use for presenting their amazeballs ideas before the client just asks for a big logo, photo of a roast chicken and a massive €5.99

  6. Mark

    Glad to see someone finally brave enough to take these greedy backstards down a peg or two. I mean what do the Luas drivers have to complain about they can almost earn €43k after nine years service which is loads of money to live on in Dublin as long as you don’t have any kids, have no desire to own your own home and don’t plan on living to long in retirement. I am sick of how this strike is being framed in the media and that English guy from transdev seems like a douche who thinks he is Thatcher taking on the miners. Once every five years they can negotiate their pay and why wouldn’t they when the cost of living in Dublin is so high. The Luas carries 90,000 people a day and I can understand their frustration but I think this has been handled badly by all parties involved. The whole point of privatizing it was to ensure there would not be any strikes. As the cost of living rises there will be more and more industrial disputes of this nature.

    1. The Real Jane

      Indeed. I cannot imagine why anyone living in Dublin and having to put a roof over their heads would see the driver’s request as riches beyond the dreams of averice – it’s really only enough to manage. You wouldn’t want to have a child in creche or with a childminder on that salary – especially if you’re sometimes rostered out of ordinary hours.

      Also, why so keen to send the luas profits to whereever transdev is based rather than keeping them in Dublin in the pockets of the drivers to use in this country?

    2. Rob_G

      Perhaps its due to the fact they same to be asking for a lot more money (well above the rate of inflation) for doing the same job, and a lot of people, who don’t get pay rises merely for doing the same several years in a row, will need to pay for these pay rises through higher ticket prices.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        So aim your ire at the CEO then, not at workers earning 30 odd thousand a year.

          1. Anne

            Go way our dat.. you mean to say they’re getting about 600 odd take home pay for working god knows what kind of hours, dealing with all sorts of people?

            Living the dream so they are.

          2. MoyestWithExcitement

            Nope. 30 odd grand a year is what they’re on. Read your own link.

      2. Anne

        ‘well above the rate of the inflation’…

        Shur wouldn’t any worker need a raise above the rate of inflation to be better off than they were before the pay raise.

        And because others haven’t received a pay rise, and wages are being diminished everywhere doesn’t mean that any particular set of workers shouldn’t fight for an increase.

        Higher ticket prices are not required.. there’s enough money there already.

      3. Anne

        “who don’t get pay rises merely for doing the same several years in a row”

        So, are you saying by the virtue of the fact of doing the same job for several years in a row- ‘merely’ you say, workers shouldn’t get a pay rise? And they’d be worse off due to cost of living increases?
        What’s this ‘merely’ about?

        Let’s tease this nonsense out.. there’s a coherent thought in there somewhere, there has to be.

      4. The Real Jane

        Do you know what? I don’t think that’s what it is at all. Even if the workers got a pay cut it wouldn’t necessarily be of economic benefit to you, it would still be up to the regulator to decide whether prices will rise.

        The problem is that so many people are reflexively hostile to unions and union action. There is no more sympathy for teachers, gardai, nurses or anyone else – the idea of any group of workers won’t just be grateful for whatever they get is anathema to too many in this country. We are, basically, servile and cowed and totally resentful of any group who aren’t.

        And even if they did earn 40 odd, why wouldn’t they? That’s very little to live in Dublin.

  7. Owen

    Whats with all the negativity on here? Relentless cynicism.

    I like them Niamh. No I didn’t fall off my bottom laughing, but I would if I saw them in town. On a side note, I ran an education campaign in a role recently and we used similar approaches. Stuff people remember seeing, even if they don’t agree, or even want to remember.

  8. Anne

    So…. what’s with all this ‘so’ business? It makes you sound like a teenager, starting a sentence with ‘so’.

    SO, Who started this trend with young-uns beginning sentences with ‘so’?

    SO, I think we need to know, so they can be taken outside for a horsewhipping.

    SO, you can p** right off with your ‘SO’.

    So, And if it weren’t for Unions, we’d have kids working 18 hour days Niamh. Bargaining power is needed in the form of Unions for workers Niamh.. pay needs to increase for workers Niamh, not going to the top only.

    That ‘So’ really p*ssed me right off more than any of the other nonsense.

    1. ReproBertie

      I blame F. Scott Fitzgerald.

      “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby, first published April 1925.

  9. They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

    Niamh that went really well and fits the BS business model – annoys lot of pricks = extra clicks.

    Note for the future

    – don’t ever even think of trying to do anything remotely funny, original, insightful or provocative again

    because “people” on here might be upset and comment about it

    You’ll be alright kid

      1. They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

        I agree – the subject matter is not very inspiring.

  10. pedeyw

    Sure design is easy with the computers now. You just push a few buttons. Nurses get paid less than designer, you know.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        Not really. Sure you can get proficient in photoshop in a couple of days.

          1. MoyestWithExcitement

            They mightnt get paid less than a staffer in a magazine but they’ll get paid less than 0eiole working in an agency.

          2. Bort

            Designers get paid less than luas drivers. Is there any intern luas drivers or job bridge luas drivers or luas that start under 18k? If a designer wants a raise they have to find a new job.

  11. Anne

    Bob Reich posted this recently, if anyone’s interested in reading it –

    This week’s essay: The Third Way: Share-the-Gains Capitalism

    Marissa Mayer tells us a lot about why Americans are so angry, and why anti-establishment fury has become the biggest single force in American politics today.

    Mayer is CEO of Yahoo. Yahoo’s stock lost about a third of its value last year, as the company went from making $7.5 billion in 2014 to losing $4.4 billion in 2015. Yet Mayer raked in $36 million in compensation.

    Even if Yahoo’s board fires her, her contract stipulates she gets $54.9 million in severance. The severance package was disclosed in a regulatory filing last Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    In other words, Mayer can’t lose.

    It’s another example of no-lose socialism for the rich – winning big regardless of what you do.

    Why do Yahoo’s shareholders put up with it? Mostly because they don’t know about it.

    Most of their shares are held by big pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance funds whose managers don’t want to rock the boat because they skim the cream regardless of what happens to Yahoo.

    In other words, more no-lose socialism for the rich.

    I don’t want to pick on Ms. Mayer or the managers of the funds that invest in Yahoo. They’re typical of the no-lose system in which America’s corporate and financial elite now operate.

    But the rest of America works in a different system.

    Theirs is cutthroat hyper-capitalism – in which wages are shrinking, median household income continues to drop, workers are fired without warning, two-thirds are living paycheck to paycheck, and employees are being classified as “independent contractors” without any labor protections at all.

    Why is there no-lose socialism for the rich and cutthroat hyper-capitalism for everyone else?

    Because the rules of the game – including labor laws, pension laws, corporate laws, and tax laws – have been crafted by those at the top, and the lawyers and lobbyists who work for them.

    Does that mean we have to await Bernie Sanders’s “political revolution” (or, perish the thought, Donald Trump’s authoritarian populism) before any of this is likely to change?

    Before we go to the barricades, you should know about another CEO named Hamdi Ulukaya, who’s developing a third model – neither no-lose socialism for the rich nor hyper-capitalism for everyone else.
    Ulukaya is the Turkish-born founder and CEO of Chobani, the upstart Greek yogurt maker recently valued at as much as $5 billion.

    Last Tuesday Ulukaya announced he’s giving all his 2,000 full-time workers shares of stock worth up to 10 percent of the privately held company’s value when it’s sold or goes public, based on each employee’s tenure and role at the company.

    If the company ends up being valued at $3 billion, for example, the average employee payout could be $150,000. Some long-tenured employees will get more than $1 million.

    Ulukaya’s announcement raised eyebrows all over corporate America. Many are viewing it an act of charity (Forbes Magazine calls it one of “the most selfless corporate acts of the year”).

    In reality, Mr. Ulukaya’s decision is just good business. Employees who are partners become even more dedicated to increasing a company’s value.

    Which is why research shows that employee-owned companies – even those with workers holding only a minority stake – tend to out-perform the competition.

    Mr. Ulukaya just increased the odds that Chobani will be valued at more than $5 billion when it’s sold or its shares of stock are available to the public. Which will make him, as well as his employees, far wealthier.

    As Ulukaya wrote to his workers, the award isn’t a gift but “a mutual promise to work together with a shared purpose and responsibility.”

    A handful of other companies are inching their way in a similar direction.

    Apple decided last October it would award shares not just to executives or engineers but to hourly paid workers as well. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is giving a third of his Twitter stock (about 1 percent of the company) ”to our employee equity pool to reinvest directly in our people.“

    Employee stock ownership plans, which have been around for years, are lately seeing a bit of a comeback.

    But the vast majority of American companies are still locked in the old hyper-capitalist model that views workers as costs to be cut rather than as partners to share in success.

    That’s largely because Wall Street still looks unfavorably on such collaboration (remember, Chobani is still privately held).

    The Street remains obsessed with short-term stock performance, and its analysts don’t believe hourly workers have much to contribute to the bottom line.

    But they’re prepared to lavish unprecedented rewards on CEOs who don’t deserve squat.

    Let them compare Yahoo with Chobani in a few years, and see which model works best.

    If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Greek yoghurt.

    And I’d bet on a model of capitalism that’s neither no-lose socialism for the rich nor cruel hyper-capitalism for the rest, but share-the-gains capitalism for everyone.

    1. Tony

      I love this. Totally makes sense. Anyone who works for me gets a share of profits and a % of the company after a certain time period. They work better and are happier for it.

      1. Owen

        I get a share of the company profits in my work. A terrible share. A share so small its less of an insult not to give me anything.

          1. Tony

            I love Hitler and regularly host bondage parties for my Young Fine Gael focus group. Someone needs to change username. I am Tony.

      2. Shane

        I’d a Tony talk to me a job like that once. It’s a stupid fucking thing for an employee to go for. All your eggs are in one basket, so if the business goes, you lose your job and your assets.

        Turns out this other Tony got convicted for sexually assaulting a girl who was out running one day.

        The craziest things can happen, so diversification is a wiser strategy than getting tied to a company for years with shares you can’t sell without being nailed for income tax

  12. Eric

    As a Graphic Designer I find it ludicrous that they’re being so petty. They’re paid enough and it’s a simple as that. They’re acting like pathetic children who’ve just been told they can’t play football on the green because they have to do their homework.

    I’m two years out of college, I have a masters degree and two years professional experience. I earn 25K euro. After rent and bills it’s not an awful lot to be honest, i’d kill to even get their starting salary!

    Why didn’t I leave school and land a job as Luas driver. I would have been better off and stress free. Luas drivers need a dose of reality.

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