when was the last time we saw a journalists' strike?? happens quite a bit in the Uk but can't remember a single example in ireland...
as for what you read in newspapers, i think generally the line they go on is 900 hours a year, which can erroneously get worked down to how every many hours a week (though it'd still come out at more than 10). basic problem is lack of comprehension between flying hours and working hours...
i remember last year there was a show a documentary on RTE one night about trainee doctors hours and they showed guys who had been on duty for 48 hours straight performing operations. the following night the guys from the pilots unions were on prime time or whatever giving out about pilots hours and the public were hugely unsympathetic. the idea was, if doctors can operate and work 120 hour weeks, what are these pilots whinging about when their weeks are so much shorter? that logic misses a crucial point though - if a sleepy surgeon drops the ball, that's a maximum of one person dead, if a pilot's overworked and messes up, you could be talking hundreds of casualties. which is why the flying public should want their pilots on teh top of their game.