RBTU serves snags on the BBQ, protests as train strikes slow Sydney rail network
RTBU members enjoyed a two-hour BBQ with hot snags as Sydney was served with massive disruptions and reduced services across multiple lines on Thursday morning. Find out if your line is affected.
NSW
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Platforms across Sydney were overflowing with commuters on Thursday morning as rail union members enjoyed snags on a BBQ and protested about workers rights as part of their weeks-long industrial action.
Commuters scrambled on overcrowded platforms only hours before Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) members gathered outside Central Station for a two-hour BBQ, having a laugh while enjoying sausage rolls.
Thursday’s strike action forms part of the ongoing industrial action by the RTBU and has seen reduced train services on all suburban and intercity lines, including the city circle and regional routes.
At the BBQ, members chanted, “When workers rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back … the workers united will never be defeated.”
Trains ran to a weekend timetable with limited additional services during peak periods on the T1, T2, T3, T4, T8, Intercity, Central Coast and Newcastle line while a normal weekday timetable was in place for Kiama to Bomaderry, Southern Highlands and Hunter lines.
It comes as scenes of chaos emerged at Chatswood Station during the morning commuter where passengers stood shoulder-to-shoulder like tinned sardines.
One traveller was heading into the city from Hornsby on the T1 line captured the incredible footage as the train pulled up at the station about 8.30am.
After fuelling up with a hot feed, hundreds of RTBU members took to the streets of Sydney and marched from Central Station to the Union NSW Hall on Sussex St as part of a six-hour stop-work meeting in the city.
Protesters embarked on a one kilometre walk under the watchful eye of police keeping officers’ hands full as some strikers broke their way through traffic and onlookers, causing further disruption.
Among the protesters was RTBU secretary Alex Claassens who chanted alongside the group.
“For them (commuters) I feel sorry, I do get it, but nobody is more angry and frustrated about any of this than what I am,” Mr Claassens told reporters earlier that morning.
“We are actually doing it for them.”
Ms Claassens dismissed a claim from Minister Tudehope that the NSW Government had come to the agreement six weeks ago.
“We did get another deed — not the deed that I signed on the 30th of June unfortunately — because if they had’ve actually accepted the deed that I signed on the 30th of June we’d be all over this,” he said.
“Unfortunately, they have given us another deed (but) it is better. I think it is doable.
“We’ve still got work to do. We did a lot of work on it last night. We looked at all the issues.”
The rail union boss empathised with commuters’ frustration but emphasised that not all decisions were his to make.
“We’ve got a bunch of people sitting in offices that have got no idea about what it’s like to run a railway. They’re making all these decisions,” he said.
“Politicians are very good at talking (but) they’re not very good at listening. What they need to do is respect the work that we all do out there every day.
“That deed has to guarantee they’re going to go ahead and fix the train and the money that is being used to fix the train is not coming out of our labelled conditions.”
Mr Claassens added that the union needed “at least 48 hours to turn around any sort of document that‘s provided to us”.
Earlier it was revealed workers who choose not to join their trade union would be forced to pay a fee worth hundreds of dollars anyway under a bid to stop “free riding on union agreements”.
The extraordinary proposal is contained in Unions NSW’s submission to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Jobs and Skills summit to be held next week.
The submission says that workers benefit from union-negotiated deals even if they do not pay their “dues” by choosing not to join.
“This free riding must stop,” the policy document reads.
“Under this proposal, a charge on free riders would be capped at 70 per cent of yearly union dues and only payable if the benefit to the worker from the enterprise agreement is higher than this amount,” it said.
Unions NSW boss Mark Morey has previously declared 2022 will be the year of the strike, stating earlier this year that unions would launch rolling industrial action unless the state government’s public sector wage cap was abolished.
Meanwhile, the rail union was accused of treating train passengers like “hostages” on Wednesday by blaring messages into carriages using the public announcement system in a bid to justify strike action.
People travelling to the CBD on Wednesday were forced to listen to broadcasts claiming the government had “backflipped” on plans to make new intercity trains “safer”.
The statements are a formal part of the RTBU’s ongoing “protected industrial action”, which steps up today as union members stop work for a barbecue at Central Station.
NSW Regional Transport Minister Sam Farraway denounced the attempted brainwashing.
“Clearly some members of the RTBU have watched Air Force One too many times,” Mr Farraway said.
“They should be negotiating with government fairly and stop using … commuters as hostages.”
But Mr Claassens said the guard announcements were “excellent”.
“It’s workers having the ability to communicate … It’s great that someone will go out and talk and say it like it is,” he said.
Previously, Mr Claassens has been criticised for his links to the NSW Labor Party, including being on its administrative committee. He dismissed the ties as “nothing”.
He said he was on lots of boards and committees: “Everybody wants a piece of Alex at one time or another.”
He also noted he would not run for Labor or any other party at the March state election.
But the union boss is facing an election contest for his union secretary role; there was no relationship between that and the industrial action.
“Shame on you for even suggesting that,” Mr Claassens said.
“I have been fighting this for six years. I have been elected twice in that time.”
The RTBU and five other rail unions are also in negotiations with the state government over a new enterprise agreement.
The RTBU wants an annual wage rise of 3.5 per cent.
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