Purple, you are acting very foolishly. My dad has been an electrician with the ESB for 19 Years since leaving school at age 16 to do an apprenticeship. The pay is certainly not the huge figures that are often tosed around - don't get me wrong, he is paid well - but not over the odds. As for working conditions and hours, Purple you are talking rubbish - as a networks electrican he is obliged to do "on call" ever third or fourth week. He is paid one single amount no matter how often he is called out during this week period. And I assure you the company are getting great value out of him for this - this week he was called out EVERY single day, on monday he arrived home at 7pm, was called out at 10pm, returned at 4am, then went into work at 8.30am for a full day. That is NORMAL for him. Yes he earns a decent wage, has a few perks such as healthcare and will proably have a good pension (although the pension fund is in a deficit of €0.5bn) - but the key word here is that he EARNS it.
The industrial action the other week was caused by inter union arguments, stupid tactics by Brendan Nooglin (the full time trade unionist), and concern about the massive pension fund deficiet. Appretices and Contractors were not the real issues.