Railway workers striking for safe working conditions at Central station

By CHRISTINE LAI

Members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) have engaged in another strike, in the latest series of industrial actions fighting for safer conditions and higher pay amidst the cost-of-living crisis. 

Workers on the City Circle went on strike from 10 am to 4 pm and suburban trains ran on reduced timetables on Thursday. The RTBU and NSW government have been engaged in a dispute over safety concerns regarding a fleet of Korean-built new intercity trains which workers have refused to operate without modifications. 

Striking over safety concerns 

Previously, the government had insisted on the safety of the trains and denied the claim of unsafe work, which had resulted in a two-year deadlock. However, the union has stated that safety assessments were conducted by the same company that built the trains, and they had independent assessments which found the trains unsafe also. 

The intercity fleet was designed for drivers to rely on CCTV footage to monitor platforms, and guards cannot adequately monitor platforms to check that gaps are clear from the new trains to ensure passenger safety. 

RTBU lead delegate for Central Depot Damian Ridgwell declared a need to stand up for workers’ rights, stating that it was “totally bullshit that the rich in this country are getting richer than ever before while working-class people are struggling to keep up with the cost-of-living.” 

“I know that all of you aren’t going to give in until we win this thing,” Ridgwell said. 

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) delegate Deaglan Maher commended striking RTBU members for their industrial action and spoke on behalf of his NSWNMA colleagues, stating their support for public sector workers striking in a bid for safe working conditions. 

Maher linked the collective struggle of nurses to RTBU members, asserting that there was a clear counter to public interests for a functioning healthcare and train system which was symptomatic of management who were consistently “undermining our safety and our attempts to take industrial action.” 

“Like you, we have an employer that does not care about the safety of staff or our patients. Like you, we have an employer who doesn’t pay us what we’re worth. Like you, we have an employer who tries to undermine our industrial action through the bosses’ court like Fair Work and the IRC,” Maher said. 

An insulting pay rise to workers 

Maher urged RTBU members and supporters to attend the upcoming nurses’ strike on the 1st of September in their continual fight for the government to address patient-to-staff ratios and their pay claims. 

“We’re getting insulting pay rise offers of 3 per cent which is way below inflation. The government has the audacity to make us pay for an inflation crisis,” he said. Maher was one of the NSWNMA delegates that raised a motion that saw nurses successfully voting for a minimum 7 per cent pay rise last month. 

Management at Sydney Trains have previously proposed reducing redundancy conditions to ‘streamline’ job cuts, ending worker consultation on work practices and safety changes and fewer full-time secure jobs by hiring more contract workers. 

The government is currently offering pay rises of 3% in the first year and 3.5% in the second for RBTU workers, in line with its public sector wage cap policy and far below the official inflation rate of 6.1 per cent. 

NSW employee relations minister, Damien Tudehope, called on the RTBU to call off the strike on Wednesday but was rebuffed by the union which said it would need at least 48 hours to review the new deal. 

RTBU secretary, Alex Claassens criticised Tudehope for his attempt to undercut the planned strike action, speaking at Central station on Thursday, “Ten minutes before he does his press conference, he sends me the deed and then has the hide to stand up there and say we should immediately cancel our industrial action. That was never going to happen.”

Striking RTBU members and supporters marched from Central station to Trades Hall, where they had their stop-work meeting. 

There will be a ban on operating privately or foreign-made trains (4GT) on August 31, which is set to take 70% of Sydney’s trains off the network. 

“Workers are being left with two options: to have a serious strike campaign or to accept unsafe workplace conditions. We’re going to continue fighting these actions tooth and nail until we can guarantee worker safety and better pay,” an RBTU member said.