In the early hours of Monday morning the NSW government shut down its own rail network, cancelling all services. Members of the Liberal Party quickly took to the airwaves to howl about a railway “strike” in a series of calculated public hysterics. NSW Transport minister David Elliott accused the rail union, the RTBU, of hijacking the city. “They cannot use the city’s transport system for some sort of terrorist-like activity”, he thundered. 
Dominic Perrottet, the premier, amped up the anti-union rhetoric, claiming: “This is Labor and the unions in bed with each other causing mass chaos in our city”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison jumped on the opportunity to bash the union, accusing it of “carrying on” and warning that “it’s a foretaste of what to expect with licence from Labor”. 
For the most part, the media dutifully reported government spin as fact and interviewed stranded commuters for sob stories. The truth is that the NSW government and Sydney Trains essentially locked out their workers. Not just train drivers, as the media obsessively focus on, but guards, signallers, station staff and cleaners. 
There are two reasons for the lockout. The first is to fill the media with vicious attacks on railway workers and to help bring the year-long industrial dispute to a very public climax. They want railway workers to feel defensive about our demands for better pay and safety, and about the actions, including strikes, we have taken to try to win them. They think that today’s antics will put us on the back foot and force us to accept a shoddy deal. 
The second is to demonstrate to the Fair Work Commission that the railway cannot function due to the RTBU’s industrial actions, and thus have those actions outlawed. Although no media outlet seems able to explain the course of events, the lead-up to the lockout was quite simple, consisting of a series of attempts by the government to use Fair Work to cancel our actions. 
RTBU members had notified that we would be implementing a ban on overtime and that we would work according to the “master roster”, rather than accepting alterations and made-up shifts. The government complained to Fair Work, which looked likely to rule against the union. So the union pre-emptively stopped those actions, but continued with other minor activities, including work-to-rule (refusing to do the bosses any favours) and refusing to accept last-minute changes to our runs except in an emergency. 
How ridiculous, then, is the insistence that services were pulled due to “safety concerns”, when all the union was doing was running to Sydney Trains’ own timetable and rules! The government, unsuccessful in its attempts to have all actions cancelled, is hoping that today’s stunt will quash our campaign for good. 
This all underlines that the determinations of Fair Work have an outrageous power over unions; it could terminate all our industrial action or even force us to arbitration, and the court is by no means a neutral arbiter of industrial disputes. It is a bosses’ tool for disciplining the workers and unions. We have seen it play this role many times. 
In 2018, Fair Work banned rail workers’ actions after an overtime ban and 24-hour strike was deemed too “disruptive” to the economy, i.e. the entire purpose of industrial action was used as a reason to prevent it. Today, the government has again run to the Commission, most likely to prevent us from taking any action at all. 
The government’s actions are part of an attack on our democratic right to take industrial action to win better wages and conditions. In dictatorships, industrial action and unions are banned and incur severe punishments. In “democratic” Australia, industrial action is ruled illegal as soon as it starts to put pressure on the boss.
So how should the RTBU respond to the government’s provocation? 
“We can’t back down in the face of a government temper tantrum”, said Damian, head driver delegate at Central depot. “We need to escalate our campaign. This is a government that’s locked out its workforce after dragging out an EA negotiation for nine months and imposing a pay freeze by stealth. Strikes and industrial actions are the only thing that will force them to deliver safety, a fair wage rise and respect for workers.” 
What is lost in the media furore today is precisely these demands, which resonate across the public sector and have motivated nurses and teachers to strike in recent weeks. We need a reasonable pay rise to keep up with the increasing cost of living, not one below inflation that amounts to a pay cut. We need key safety measures to be implemented and retained, like guards on trains and COVID safety. We want conditions that improve our quality of life as shift workers. 
In the likely event that Fair Work rules in favour of the government, the RTBU should be prepared to defy whatever bans are placed on our democratic right to take industrial action. While the chaos today was caused by the bosses’ lockout, railway workers have no reason to feel defensive about striking to win our demands. As workers whose labour keeps Sydney moving, our bargaining power is our ability to stop work and shut down the arteries of Australia’s biggest economy. The only times the government has felt pressured to concede anything is when we have taken such action. Despite all the drama today, that is still our best chance of winning our campaign for fair pay, safety and decent conditions.

RTBU member

NSW railway lockout needs a defiant union response

It started with an old union song, “Solidarity forever”, blasting away in the Central Station sign-on room. Train drivers and guards started to congregate, wearing blue Rail Tram and Bus Union shirts emblazoned with “union and proud”. When a shift manager walked into the room, the song changed abruptly to “Who Let the Dogs Out” as workers burst out laughing. 
These were the moments before an eight-hour strike engulfed the New South Wales rail network. Thousands of train guards, drivers, signallers, crew support officers, track workers, shunters, station staff and cleaners brought the arteries of the NSW public transport system to a grinding halt. 
At Central, the biggest depot on the network, the mood was jubilant. One hundred and fifty workers were joined by sympathetic members of the public at the Grand Concourse of Central Station to chant, sing and speak out about our fight against the state government. Similar rallies occurred at every depot across New South Wales.
Workers were clear on what this fight was all about. 
“We’re here to send a message to the government, which is trying to force an unsafe train onto our network just so they can get rid of guards from our train services”, Damian, a socialist and the head delegate at Central, said at the rally on Monday night. “We won’t stand for that. We’re fighting for respect at work, for a decent pay rise and to defend our conditions.” 
After almost a year of ignoring the union’s log of claims, NSW Transport has offered a paltry 2.5 percent pay rise, which includes the federally mandated superannuation increase of almost 0.5 percent. In other words, workers are being told to take an “increase” well below inflation—a pay cut as the cost of living in Sydney continues to soar. 
“We have these fat cat politicians in Macquarie Street giving themselves pay rises, we have managers on half a million dollars a year saying we should be grateful for a pay cut”, Damian said to cries of “shame!” from the gathered crowd. 
Rank-and-file drivers and guards spoke about the need for more action. “We need strikes that really disrupt things, twelve or 24 hours”, one young guard said. Her friend, a new driver, agreed. “Who cares if Fair Work rules against us again? These laws are designed to disarm unions and we have to be prepared to break them” he said, referring to a 2018 decision that outlawed the union’s planned 24-hour strike, citing the damage it would do to the NSW economy. 
Back then, the union officials conceded to Fair Work and cancelled the strike. Workers, by a slim majority, begrudgingly voted to accept an offer well below the union’s demands. So far in this campaign, Fair Work hasn’t ruled against any of the union’s actions, but many worry that it is only a matter of time.
At the Central rally, there was a welcome display of solidarity from the public. Sydney University students passed motions in their student union to support the RTBU strike, as did unionised teachers from one school, who sent a representative to speak at the rally.
The eight-hour strike gave railway workers a sense of power and momentum in what has already been a long campaign. It was clear from the energy that workers are prepared to do whatever it takes to win our demands against the arrogant NSW government.

NSW rail workers strike against the government

Chasing a pay rise and better safety, and to defend working conditions, NSW railway workers held a four-hour strike on 28 September, bringing the state’s passenger rail system to a halt. It was part of a Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) campaign against the state Liberal government’s austerity agenda.
As the strike started, more than 100 drivers and train guards marched out of Central Station meal rooms, chanting as we went, and formed a picket on the balcony of the Grand Concourse. Despite police barricading the concourse, train crew were determined to make a public show of our campaign.
Eventually, police and management colluded to force the picket inside the station building under threat of public health order fines.
The strike was the culmination of a month of industrial action, including overtime bans, go-slows and days of drivers sounding the train’s horn to make noise in support of the demands of the campaign. Train crews are still observing an indefinite ban on wearing uniforms, wearing campaign shirts instead. Rather than the usual dull grey, everyone wears shirts emblazoned with “Proud to be Union”. 
Our anger had already been shown in the vote for industrial action itself. More than 90 percent voted in favour of every form of action on the ballot, including network-wide 24-hour strikes.
Depots have been a hive of activity recently. At Central, we organised a lively meeting of 65 drivers and guards, discussing the upcoming actions and giving a space for workers to air grievances. 
In that meeting, we got a dozen volunteers to start a campaign committee to organise postering of the depot, a petition, a script for announcements about our demands to be made over trains’ PA systems, and phone banking to get workers to the in-person picket at Central during the strike.
We intend to have more depot meetings of union members. We also need to involve as many union activists as possible in the campaign committee—to build on the success of this strike with more strikes and pickets, and to do the work necessary to make them a success.
The strike was observed by all sections of the railways, from train crew to station staff and signallers. The last network-wide strike called by the RTBU was in 2018. Then, the planned 24-hour strike was stopped by a ruling of the FairWork Commission, which our union leaders went along with. We don’t want to repeat that mistake.
Like the bosses were then, railway workers now are well aware that, while we will keep up other forms of industrial action, strikes are key to winning the campaign. Union coverage in the railways is so wide that, when a strike is declared, the bosses know that they are powerless to get trains moving. This is an advantage our side needs to press.
The state Liberal government has used the COVID pandemic as an opportunity to attack the wages of public sector workers. It has tried to extend and deepen the wage freeze declared in 2011 by the O’Farrell government. Last year, another public sector wage freeze was approved by the Industrial Relations Commission—which resulted in a real wage cut. Earlier this year, the government tried to impose the freeze on railway workers by delaying by a year the expiry of the existing workplace agreement.
But that was overwhelmingly rejected by Sydney Trains and NSW Trains workers in March. Despite 87 percent voting against the freeze, the bosses and the government are continuing to try to impose this austerity agenda. Yet senior government officials continue to receive enormous pay rises while essential workers are under attack. For example, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller received a $90,000 pay rise after the pay freeze was announced. 
Many of us want to take more strike action. Despite the 2018 strike being struck down by the FairWork Commission, we still managed to get a pay rise above the Liberals’ 2.5 percent pay cap. That was still far below what could have been achieved with a campaign of further strike action. This year’s campaign gives us a chance to take that action and win the wage rises that we deserve.

NSW railway workers’ campaign heats up

Railway workers have overwhelmingly rejected a NSW government effort to use the pandemic as an opportunity to attack public sector wages. Attempting to prevent industrial action, the bosses of Sydney Trains and NSW Trainlink called for a vote to extend the existing workplace agreement by six months with a pitiful 0.3 percent pay rise. Railway workers rejected proposal in a landslide—87 percent voting against it in Sydney Trains and 89 percent voting against it in NSW Trainlink.
The attempt to cut real wages is part of the wider austerity agenda of the Liberal government. Public sector workers have typically had higher wages and are far more unionised than comparable private sector workplaces. 
In 2011, the Liberals tried to restrain public sector wage growth to no more than 2.5 percent per year. Last year, as the pandemic broke out, the government used the opportunity to freeze the wages of 410,000 public sector workers—a wage cut once inflation is factored in. On top of this, Treasurer Dominic Perrotet has announced that the government will offer wage increases of no more than 1.5 percent for the next three years.
While austerity for the working class has kept the state functioning throughout the pandemic, there is largess for the wealthy. At the same time as the pay freeze was announced, $2.4 billion was handed out to businesses in payroll tax cuts. Senior public service executives have also received massive increases to their already substantial salaries. For example, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller received a $90,000 pay rise after the pay freeze was announced.
Railway workers rejecting the government’s proposal is an important step in fighting the Liberal’s attacks on public sector wages. The rail sector is the first to start negotiations for a new enterprise agreement since the pandemic hit. If railways workers can smash the pay freeze, it will provide an example for nurses, teachers and firefighters. 
The scale of the no vote against the bosses proposed agreement shows that railway workers are keen to fight. But it will take a determined campaign of industrial action to defeat the Liberal government’s anti-worker agenda.
The writer is a member of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union

NSW railway workers reject pay freeze

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union in Victoria has beaten an attempt by Metro Trains to quash a protected action ballot order at the Fair Work Commission.
Australia has some of the most restrictive and anti-democratic industrial relations laws in the world. Striking is almost entirely illegal except for a tiny window during the negotiation of enterprise agreements, and even then there are several hoops unions must jump through. Unions must first get permission from the Fair Work Commission to even ask their members if they want to take strike action, and then they have to conduct a secret postal ballot in which a majority of employees must vote (and of course, of that, a majority must vote to strike). 
Even when all these requirements are met, employers can still challenge the industrial action. Last year, NSW rail workers had their strike deemed illegal by Fair Work because the strike threatened to be effective and stop trains!
Four years ago, union members at Metro Trains and Yarra Trams struck for the first time in almost two decades as part of negotiations for a new agreement. Back then, the state Labor industrial relations minister worked with the private transport companies to take the union to the Fair Work Commission in an attempt to have our industrial action terminated. Fortunately they were unsuccessful, and the ensuing action won some important concessions. 
This time around, union members at Metro Trains are fighting for a 6 percent pay rise, protections for part time workers, guaranteed minimum staffing numbers to protect job security and ensure improved passenger service and safety, and provisions to limit favouritism and ensure fair career progression opportunities. 
Union members at Yarra Trams are similarly fighting for a 6 percent pay rise and secure jobs. Management wants to significantly reduce minimum hours for part timers, from seven hours to four, and increase the cap on the part time workforce from 4 percent to 22 percent. 
Due to a strong union presence, public transport workers have staved off the casualisation that has plagued many other industries. But expanding the part time workforce with low minimum required hours and a high cap on possible additional hours without being paid overtime reflect the transport companies’ desire for a more insecure workforce. 
In the following days union members will be receiving protected industrial action ballots in the mail. A high return of ballots and an overwhelming majority in support of industrial action will be an important first step towards thwarting the transport bosses’ attacks and winning some improvements for workers.

Vic transport workers gear up for strike

In a move described as “a blatant and obvious attack on the union movement” by the rail union, Metro Trains Sydney in March sacked a union delegate on its new driverless train project. The delegate had been in the process of petitioning for union recognition and a better agreement. 
The Metro Trains project, due to begin operation this year, has been a centrepiece of the Liberal state government’s agenda of privatising public transport. The government has already sold off the operation of parts of Sydney’s bus and ferry transport network, transport minister Andrew Constance commenting in 2017 that “in 10 to 15 years’ time, government will not be in the provision of transport services”. 
Running trains for profit will increase the cost of transport for commuters, and is a threat to the safety of workers and passengers as profits are put ahead of the safe operation of trains. The sacking of the Metro delegate shows that privatisation of public transport is just as much about trying to break the power of unions in the rail industry, which has one of the highest union densities in the state.
From the start, Metro Trains Sydney has been determined to stop the rail union from organising on the new project and has savagely cut conditions that have been hard fought for in the rail industry. Management have been able to use a greenfields agreement to pay their workers significantly less than workers doing equivalent duties at Sydney Trains. The greenfields agreement has also allowed them to register Professionals Australia as the union representing all Metro staff, a move intended to sideline the more militant Rail, Tram and Bus Union.
Metro employees have told Red Flag that when they were initially interviewed, they were assured that they would receive penalty rates, as well as penalties for night shifts. But once they were employed, none of these entitlements were in their contracts. 
Shift work in the rail industry takes a tremendous toll on those who work it. Studies show that people who regularly work night shifts live up to 10 years less than the average worker, and missing social and family events is common. The Metro contract had no provisions for shift-working penalties; instead it has a total fixed remuneration rate of pay. This means that someone working a 9 to 5 roster would be paid the same as someone working the graveyard shift all year. Workers have also been told that they will not receive overtime rates, and instead may take time in lieu at an unspecified date. The pay at Metro Sydney is also significantly lower than for workers conducting similar duties at Sydney Trains. 
Conditions to limit fatigue are likewise woefully inadequate. In a safety-critical industry like the railways, fatigue can easily lead to serious injury and death. Fatigue was a key contribution to the Waterfall train derailment in 2003, in which seven people lost their lives. Frequency of shifts and adequate time off between shifts are important safety conditions, but are lacking in the Metro Trains agreement. 
While the majority of staff at Metro have joined the rail union, management has refused to recognise the RTBU. It was while the delegate was collecting signatures to have the union officially recognised so that the workers could fight for a fair agreement that Metro sacked him, using the fact that he was still on probation to avoid any repercussions.
A protest was held immediately after the sacking, and the union is continuing to pursue the case. 
Metro’s actions are an attack on the rights of workers to organise to fight for better wages and conditions everywhere. The privatisation of public transport is a threat to the hard fought for working conditions in the rail industry. Running the rail system for profit will always mean cuts to safety, jobs and workers’ dignity.

Workers attacked by Sydney private rail operator

Two sacked cleaners at Melbourne’s iconic Flinders Street Station have won their jobs back after joining with other rail workers to fight their boss. Ada and Lilly [not their real names] were sacked by cleaning contractor ISS, after they had refused to shift from permanent to casual positions. 
In the past, workers like Ada and Lilly would have been employed directly by the government or rail operator. These days, the outsourcing of station cleaning is just part of the maze of contracting and subcontracting that keeps Melbourne’s train network running. 
Like many industries, the railways are full of divisions. Workers in different grades and job roles often find themselves pitted against each other – whether it’s train drivers and signallers, workers in the local control rooms and those in the central control room or cleaners versus customer service staff. Unfortunately, outsourcing and subcontracting can exacerbate these divisions. 
At Flinders Street there have been instances when rail workers – frustrated with their own conditions – have tried to blame cleaning staff for customer complaints about the station, or the condition of our own amenities. Rank and file leaders in the Rail, Tram and Bus Union have consistently argued against these tendencies and that RTBU members must stand in solidarity with cleaners while blaming the bosses’ outsourcing, understaffing and under-resourcing for any problems with station standards. Sadly, earlier this year, a small group of rail workers called for cleaners to be banned from the staff meal rooms. The majority of members were very clear that we would not support this.
Given the sometimes delicate relationship between rail workers and cleaners, it was a breath of fresh air to come into work one Friday afternoon and be rushed by multiple RTBU members insisting that I find Ada. When I found Ada, she was in the middle of panicked conversation with a sympathetic rail worker.
Ada’s first language isn’t English, and she had been given a letter that she didn’t understand. She recognised it immediately as a bad sign. The letter summoned her to a meeting the next day to discuss her hours. Ada thought that the company would try to make her job casual. She was right. 
Ada went to the meeting alone. There, her managers tried to force her to sign an agreement giving up her permanent full time position and accepting a casual role. Even though her union, United Voice, wasn’t with her in this meeting, Ada had the courage to refuse to sign. When her employer continued to push, she agreed to take the paperwork home and return with an answer the next day. When she came into work the day after the meeting, she was handed a termination letter. The same thing happened to two other cleaners. 
Immediately, RTBU members rallied around the workers. While we helped Ada and her workmates explain the urgency of the situation to United Voice, we also got straight into the job of helping them write statements about their experience. We looked up their award rights and reviewed the ISS contract to see if we could find any points they could use to defend themselves. The RTBU also applied pressure, calling on the rail operators to step in. 
After a few days of frantic activity from the cleaners and RTBU activists, a United Voice organiser visited the station and spoke with the workers. The union then launched a Fair Work case against the dismissals and, to date, has secured the jobs of two of the sacked workers. 
The campaign to save these jobs shows the importance of re-establishing traditions of rank and file workplace activism in our unions. Because we have done this at Flinders Street Station, Ada and her workmates knew that a collective response was possible when they were unfairly sacked. Had it not been for the quick response of other rail workers, their story would likely have been just another demoralising tale about job insecurity and union impotence. Instead, Ada is back at work, and everyone who was involved walks a little taller.

Rail workers step in to save station cleaners’ jobs

The campaign by NSW railway workers has come to a disappointing end, management winning a slim majority for a new enterprise agreement. The deal falls well short of the demands of railway workers. 
After the Fair Work Commission banned a planned rail workers’ strike, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains took the opportunity to press their advantage. Following the commission’s ruling, management broke off negotiations with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and put a vote straight to employees. 
The new agreement offers a 3 percent wage increase per year for the life of the agreement, a maximum of 64 weeks’ severance pay for redundancies, the addition of seven days’ domestic violence leave and a $1000 sign-on bonus.
Under the deal, NSW railway workers will continue to be paid significantly less than railway workers in Queensland and Victoria. But while the NSW government and Sydney Trains management announced the result of the vote with a collective sigh of relief, their victory is not total. 
Transport minister Andrew Constance and Sydney Trains declared at the beginning of the campaign that they would impose the NSW public service wages cap of 2.5 percent. They have failed in that aim. While the final pay offer of 3 percent is well below what railway workers could have won, the very public nature of the campaign has shown the rest of the public sector that the wages cap can be broken. 
The vote in favour of the new agreement was carried by a very small margin. Out of 9,700 Sydney Trains employees, only 52.8 percent voted for the agreement, with 6,500 ballots returned. At NSW Trains, the vote for the agreement was carried with just 50.8 percent voting yes and 1,300 of the 2,000 ballots returned.
The significant “no” vote – without the union calling for a vote against the deal – is an indication of the willingness of railway workers to push on for a better deal. Without a clear path forward, many rail workers were demoralised, and voting to accept a smaller increase seemed, to some, a more practical option. With the looming prospect of privatisation, there were also some who fear redundancies in the near future. 
In spite of this, the size of the “no” vote shows that a determined lead could have easily swung the result to a majority against the deal and to continue the fight.
Calling off the planned strike after the Fair Work Commission ruling was a missed opportunity for railway workers. The winding up of the campaign shows that no amount of clever negotiating tactics can substitute for the power that workers have when they shut down industry. 
Railway workers responded with enthusiasm to the call to strike, and their campaign had overwhelming public support. Had the strike gone ahead in spite of the legal ruling, the outcome of this dispute could have been dramatically different. RTBU members have learnt the hard way that unjust laws need to be broken to be changed.

After strike ban, NSW rail workers’ campaign loses steam

In September, the Victorian Labor government signed a seven-year contract extension with Melbourne’s metropolitan rail operator, Metro Trains. Hidden in the contract – which was kept secret from rail workers and our union – was a Public Transport Victoria proposal to cut local control desk operations and centralise these functions in a CBD-based super-control room.
Control room staff in the Clifton Hill group (South Morang and Hurstbridge lines) were told that their stations would be a pilot for the changes. The news was that up to 30 permanent full time jobs would be wiped from across the Cilfton Hill, Reservoir, Eltham and Heidelberg stations. If rolled out across the network, our union – the Rail, Tram and Bus Union – estimated that as many as 400 jobs would be lost.
In a reflection of the utter disregard Metro has for its workers, the union was not consulted about changes. Instead, the major restructure was announced as a fait accompli.
The RTBU successfully argued at the Fair Work Commission that the company was required to consult with the union before implementing a change of this nature. This legal reprieve, while not stopping the plan, bought activists time to organise.
An action committee was quickly formed and a campaign to save the jobs set in motion. Delegates and members involved in the committee took the position that there was nothing to negotiate about. The campaign aim was to save every job at every station.
Led by delegates in the Clifton Hill area, union members sprang into action, holding weekly morning protests outside the stations threatened with cuts. The action committee met regularly to discuss tactics and spread information about the company’s plans at union meetings across the rail network. Metro and the government quickly found themselves in an uncomfortable position.
Our lively and persistent campaign, the threat of greater levels of industrial unrest and a proposal to protest the government outside Parliament House resulted in a backdown. On 1 March, public transport minister Jacinta Allan contacted the union to say that the changes were no longer proceeding. A senior Metro manager sent a letter with a similar message but threatened to resume discussions in 12 months.
Unionised station staff have every reason to feel proud about this victory. We should take the momentum and lessons of our win into the next round of enterprise agreement negotiations, which begin next year.

Rail union win: job cuts stopped

Across the Victorian passenger rail network, workers are facing a series of attacks on jobs and conditions.
The regional rail operator, V/Line, is trying to vary its enterprise agreement with its workforce, just 12 months before the agreement is due to expire. Earlier this year, the company presented the union that represents rail workers, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, with a list of conditions it wanted cut from the agreement. Asking the union to “take a leap of faith” and trust the company, it encouraged a yes vote in a company-initiated employee ballot to approve the changes.
V/Line had hoped to catch the union asleep at the wheel by first notifying union leaders of its plans over the Christmas break period. The company was also calculating that historical divisions between train drivers and other rail workers would make it easier to push through changes, which predominantly impacted the drivers. As drivers make up a minority of the whole workforce, the company’s strategy to encourage the majority to roll them was to offer a $1,500 payment to each worker if the yes vote prevailed.
Instead, union activists mobilised across the regional rail network to condemn V/Line’s attempt to divide and conquer and called for a no vote. On 6 February, union and cross-division solidarity delivered the company a resounding defeat. More than 90 percent of eligible staff voted in the company’s ballot, and 82 percent voted no to a $1,500 bribe and an attack on conditions for one part of the workforce.
Solidarity will be needed again to save dozens of threatened jobs on the metropolitan rail network in Melbourne. Just months after Metro Trains signed a new contract with the state Labor government, plans have been released to close a number of control rooms along the South Morang and Hurstbridge train lines – immediately threatening the jobs of around 30 station officers. While Metro is being sketchy about the details, it has said that cuts at the Clifton Hill station will be a “pilot” for similar changes at other stations.
Ultimately, the union understands that Metro wants to close local control rooms and shift this work to a super control room somewhere in the CBD. Little is known about what a central control would look like, but it’s clear that it will be staffed by far fewer workers than currently work in control rooms across the network.
Control room operators are the beating heart of the network. Many have years of experience at their stations. These are the workers responsible for monitoring train stations and train movements, providing customer service announcements and responding to emergencies. If you push the emergency button at a suburban train station, it is the local control room staff who respond. Any attempt to cut costs in this area and sack control room operators will be at the expense of passenger safety.
Union delegates and activists have already formed an action committee to fight for these jobs. The campaign started with a well-received public action at the Clifton Hill station on 7 February. One regular commuter stopped to offer these words of encouragement: “The staff here are just excellent, and what [Metro] is trying to do makes me sick”.
Speaking to Red Flag, one control room operator explained why she’s part of the union campaign: “If we all unite together, we can stand strong and have a better chance to fight Metro”. The action committee has decided to organise weekly public actions to highlight the impact of the cuts and to build the pressure on Metro and the public transport minister, Jacinta Allan.
The threat the union is fighting is clear: if Metro can get away with job cuts here, it will be spurred on to make cuts in other sections of the network. RTBU members aren’t fighting simply to save their own skins but to defend workers’ rights to expect full-time permanent jobs. This fight isn’t limited to rail; it’s a battle all workers have an interest in.

NSW railway lockout needs a defiant union response

NSW rail workers strike against the government

NSW railway workers’ campaign heats up

NSW railway workers reject pay freeze

Vic transport workers gear up for strike

Workers attacked by Sydney private rail operator

Rail workers step in to save station cleaners’ jobs

After strike ban, NSW rail workers’ campaign loses steam

Rail union win: job cuts stopped

Rail bosses on the attack in Victoria

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