More Industrial Action to Cause Extensive Train Delays in New South Wales

Commuters arrive at the closed Central Station during a planned industrial action by workers at Sydney and NSW Trains in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 21, 2022. All trains across Sydney and NSW have been cancelled. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

New South Wales commuters are likely to face extensive delays in their train services the coming Wednesday and Friday as the transport union threatens further strike action, which has been criticised by the government as being “politically motivated.”

Up to 75 percent of peak-hour rail services have been reduced later this week after the NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) boycotted South Korean-built trains over safety concerns, and pushed for better wage and working conditions.

In response, the Perrottet government has offered the union $264 million to upgrade the new intercity fleet, a one-off $3,185 (US$2,170) payment to rail workers, and two separate pay rises in the next 12 months.

But the union resisted, demanding to divide negotiations over the modifications and wages into a two-step process, instead of combining them in a single deal.

NSW Transport Minister David Elliott on July 1 said the two-step process is “not fair on the taxpayers,” who deserve “certainty of service provisions in relation to the running of the trains.”

“Enough is enough, we’re drawing a line in the sand,” he said in a press conference on Friday.

Elliot told 2GB that the train strike action is “the most politically motivated industrial action since the sacking of Gough Whitlam.”

He said the unions are “trying to use the strikes to motivate people to vote Labor” and put pressure on the Perrottet government.

“This is an act of shame and dishonour to the Labor movements,” he said. “They want to complain about their working conditions where their working conditions are pretty solid.”

The state election is scheduled for March 25, 2023.

Other Strikes

The state saw a teachers’ strike on Thursday, with the teachers’ union demanding a pay rise of between 5 and 7.5 percent. On Tuesday, thousands of nurses also walked off the job to call for higher staffing ratios and a pay rise of 7 percent to cope with the soaring cost of living.

The industrial action planned for next Wednesday and next Friday come despite NSW having raised its wage cap for public sector workers by 3 percent, the highest in the country.

RTBU Secretary Alex Claassens earlier said that “people need to understand that we are doing this for them.”

“We want a safe train. We want to address safety first and then our working conditions and then wages.”

“This train is a sub-standard train bought from South Korea that is just not safe. It was designed to be driver-only, no guards on the train. We now have got a commitment the guards are there to stay, but we have got to modify the train so they can do the job to keep people safe.”

“Until we see it in writing and somebody actually signs the document, we have got nothing,” Claassens said.