Complaining has become woven into our culture. We moan when
it starts to rain and when the sun’s rays ‘blind us’, not to mention when it’s
too cold or when the mercury in our thermometers finally push past the 20 mark!
Its seems to me as if we always want something that we can’t have but is that a
bad thing?
It is our internal desire for a better life coupled with our
ambition to succeed that forces us to take risks and moreover over to work
harder. When we complain some little flame ignites that pushes us to take
action, yet complaining is only successful when both our voices are heard and
there is actually a problem in the first place.
Complaining for the sake of complaining doesn’t or at least shouldn’t
benefit us. This is where my problem with the Luas strikes stems from and not
the fact it means getting up an hour earlier to get to college. The Ireland of
today has become expectant, everybody seems to think they are entitled to the
best hours, salaries, lifestyles and pensions without ever making a sacrifice.
Luas drivers are already starting off on an annual wage of
37,000€, money most Trinity graduates even with a masters could only dream of.
Think of our students nurses who had to obtain over 450 leaving cert points,
endure over 20 hours of lectures a week, only to earn a pitiful €6.26 an hour
up until a week ago . Then there are the law graduates, the ones who are often
deemed the ‘big shots’ stepping out into jobs paying a miserly €20 000, that is
if they’re lucky to get a paying job and not stuck interning. However when you
compare this to places such as McDonalds where the starting pay is between 12-15000 per annum, Those
previous examples are a good foundation given the fact that with the right
motivation and ambition those graduates may move up the ranks to earn 40-100
000 after 10 to 20 years. That’s 10-20 years of hard work, and long hours after
5/6 years of secondary school and 4 years at university and placements/internships
just in case anybody requires clarification! So can somebody please explain to
me how by implementing these ludicrous demands suggested by LUAS workers,
unions are making a step towards creating a more just and fair democratic
society?
Surely if we wanted those entering jobs that do not even
require a Leaving Certificate earning the same amount as university professors
and senior speech and language therapists we would be delving into the idea of
a communist society opposed to ridiculing the word ‘democracy’. There is a time
and a place for unions but there is also a time to say no to them, to impose
limits, to prove that those outside the unions should have a say too because
when we peel back the surface both those at the top of companies and those at
the bottom as well as everywhere in between are human and being human means
being somewhat selfish, it means wanting more and this coupled with being Irish
means wanting to complain! It should not however mean easy solutions and better
outcomes for little or no effort.
I’m not saying that a University degree or even a Leaving
Certificate is needed to earn more than €50,000 a year but hard work,
determination and real relevant work experience should be. Unions should not
prevent development or deter people from using their own perseverance and sweat
to obtain their desires. When I ask about why the government can’t guarantee
better teachers or a higher standard of education system the answer should
never be ‘oh the unions will react badly if there’s no tenure’. Similarly a
clean driving license should not provide you with a better chance of a high
earning job than a PHD.
