Sydney’s rail union risks public safety with New Year’s Eve strike threat

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s threat of strike action in Sydney over the busy New Year period is an object lesson in how not to win friends and influence customers.

The transport union has threatened to strike over the new year period. Credit: Kate Geraghty

The union is preparing to strand, desert or inconvenience hundreds of thousands of Sydneysiders, visitors and holidaymakers in pursuit of a 32 per cent pay rise over four years.

RTBU members are also seeking a reduction to a 35-hour working week but their employer, the Minns government, only wants to pay the union 9.5 per cent plus super over three years. The pair have been arguing the toss since May with little to show except this latest threat of another strike. Previously, their industrial relations impasse brought Sydney to the precipice of a shutdown in late November.

Having been elected with a promise to remove the cap on public sector salaries, the Minns government has opened an industrial relations world of pain in granting large pay rises to police and teachers to attract recruits and retain experience. Now nurses and midwives too are pursuing a one-year 15 per cent pay rise and the RTBU, frustrated after months of being at loggerheads with the government, is prepared to use the public as a bargaining tool.

On Monday, the government and the union jousted over a technical argument about whether the union’s industrial action – successfully blocked by the Minns government in the Federal Court on December 8 – was valid. Soon after the legal sparring failed to achieve a resolution, 75 per cent of the 8000 members then backed various forms of action including strikes from December 28.

The protracted industrial action is near identical to the union’s previous efforts, which included train cancellations, delays and skipped stops. According to Coalition analysis, under the proposed protected industrial action due to recommence on December 28, shift limits for suburban and intercity staff would incrementally decline to nearly half their normal 217-kilometre maximum by January 1.

The bans could wreak havoc for New Year’s Eve revellers. New Year’s Eve is the busiest day of the year on Sydney’s rail network with services running throughout the night as up to 1 million people pack the Sydney Harbour foreshore for vantage points to take in the world-famous fireworks.

In 2022, when a dispute between the state and RTBU resulted in the cancellation of train services as part of its campaign for higher wages and changes to the intercity fleet, then opposition leader Minns made it clear that strikes would not lead to an agreement between the rail union and the Coalition government.

The union action also wilfully ignores public responsibility. The massive safety issues raised by its preparedness to strand thousands of women, children and families in a CBD full of marooned New Year’s Eve revellers cannot be allowed. The RBTU should immediately rule out strike action over the new year.

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