Sydney’s rail network hangs in balance ahead of ultimate showdown

It has been building towards this for months: an ultimate showdown between powerful rail unions and a state Labor government as Sydney’s rail network edges closer to a shutdown.

After a court threw out an interim injunction blocking industrial action on Thursday, the government has now pulled the trigger on one of the last legal weapons in its armory.

Taking a leaf out of the former Coalition government’s playbook, the Minns government will make its case to the industrial umpire on Christmas Eve that industrial action should be terminated or suspended due to the economic harm or risks to public safety it poses.

Sydney train commuters are caught in the middle of the brinkmanship between rail unions and the government. Credit: Edwina Pickles

After schools break and people leave for holidays, patronage drops substantially during the Christmas week, taking pressure off the rail network. That’s no consolation for those who rely on it to get to work or to catch up with family and friends for Christmas festivities.

Yet what looms is the rail system’s single busiest day on New Year’s Eve. Even in a good year, it leaves transport officials on the edge of their seats in control rooms, hoping that a train breakdown or a dumb act does not throw the network into chaos in the hours before and after the fireworks.

Now, the prospect of severe disruptions when up to 1.5 million gather on Sydney’s harbour front within hours for New Year’s Eve fireworks helps the government make the case that public safety is at serious risk.

Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Toby Warnes outside court on Thursday after the unions’ legal win. Credit: Dan Himbrechts

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb added to the warnings on Friday, saying she held “grave concerns” for Sydneysiders’ safety on New Year’s Eve and may recommend fireworks be cancelled if rail industrial action continues.

Over the last few months, the wider economic cost of repeated disruption to a rail network which transports up to a million people each weekday has also been mounting.

If you feel like you’ve been here before, you have. Standoffs between rail unions and the state government are repeated every two to three years as the two sides push each other to the brink while bickering over new enterprise agreements.

This time, brinkmanship is pitting NSW Labor ministers against those who helped them win the 2023 election and who might not easily forget the past six months.

On one side is the likes of Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) state secretary Toby Warnes, the apprentice of long-time union leader Alex Claassens who he succeeded.

Warnes and the RTBU are backed by five other unions, as well as trade union heavyweight Mark Morey. The Unions NSW secretary has been involved in negotiations and was hovering in the background after the court win on Thursday.

On the other is the likes of Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, a former chief of staff at the Transport Workers Union who acknowledged in his inaugural speech in 2015 to parliament the “master teachers of patience” at the TWU, as well as paying tribute to leaders at the RTBU and Unions NSW.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was involved in negotiations with rail unions on Wednesday night.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Labor delivered on an election promise to lift the previous government’s wage cap. The rail unions took that to mean that a new era of bargaining had begun – not that another de facto wages cap was in place.

Amid the finger pointing this week, the two sides have, in fact, been moving closer. Those in the discussions say the government improved its offer on Wednesday night. While it was swiftly rejected, the unions have shown a willingness to lower their pay demands for a 32 per cent rise over four years.

With the RTBU now free to ramp up industrial action, the government has been left second-guessing about which of the 200-odd bans rail workers will enact. So far, the union has resisted enacting the nuclear option: a ban on members working if trains do not run 24 hours a day.

To do so would further strengthen the government’s argument for Fair Work to terminate or suspend actions.

Recent history has shown that state governments have had mixed success making the case for the industrial umpire to intervene. In 2018, Fair Work ruled that a 24-hour strike and an overtime ban threatened to endanger the population and cause economic harm, ordering rail workers to abandon strike action.

Yet four years later, the Perrottet government failed to convince Fair Work to temporarily order a stop to industrial action on economic harm grounds.

The Labor government is now taking a high-risk gamble. It is hoping the threat to public safety on New Year’s Eve will be enough to elicit an intervention by the industrial umpire. Sydneysiders are left holding their breath.

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