It has never been so easy to get out of bed. I woke up well before my 4:30am alarm to get to work for the early morning shift. Across Melbourne’s metropolitan train network, hundreds of us were signing on for work and gearing up to walk-off at 10am for a four-hour stop-work.
Most of us were devastated when a previous stop-work was called off because Metro said it would improve its offer. Delegates who argued that it was a mistake were vindicated when the company presented an insulting offer that slashed core conditions.
For months, union activists and delegates have been travelling around the network talking to union members and holding meetings. Finally, by striking, we were to land our first blow against the company. We had already watched on as our union comrades in the tram division struck for their rights. 
At my workplace, Flinders Street Station, the mood was one of excitement. We turned the company’s tool box meeting into a quick discussion about how we should coordinate our walk-off. Managers wandered around trying to find workers who would shake their hands, offering up platitudes about their concern for our wellbeing. “Spirits have never been higher!”, was the response of one station assistant.
As 10am approached, we started to congregate around the concourse. By then, the human resources department had appeared, dressed in our orange vests. Apparently they were there to do our jobs. We watched for a moment in amusement as they tried to figure out how the public transport system operates. But as the seconds ticked over we counted down “… 4,3,2,1 strike!”.
It’s hard to describe the feeling of walking out, standing together on Flinders Street Stations steps, on strike for the first time in 18 years. Knowing that we matter and won’t be pushed around.
“This is the most beautiful thing you will ever see”, James, a workmate, said to me, “but next time we have to go out for the whole day”.
We made our way to Trades Hall so we could march back to Flinders Street Station with hundreds of other union members and supporters. Signallers, station staff, control desk operators, admin assistants, train drivers – all the different grades melted away. There were cheers, hugs and plenty of back slaps as contingents from all the stations and depots joined the rally.
Back on the steps, this time with a crowd, we resolved to continue taking action until Metro shows us respect.
Gushing with excitement about how powerful we felt, we headed over the road to toast our strike. After celebrations, discussions turned to the question of what next.
At the start of our campaign, many union members thought that the threat of industrial action alone would force the company to back down. It’s clear now that these mongrels are up for a fight. The feeling in the pub that afternoon, and at work the next day, was that we need to hit harder next time – we need to go out for 24 hours.
The task of delegates and activists now is to keep the momentum up. Metro is back at the bargaining table and has increased its pay offer. But it still wants to gut our conditions. Our fight has moved the company, but this is not the time to back down or ease up. Now we need to keep pushing to a victory.

RTBU (Rail Division) delegate

On strike against Metro

After coming under pressure from the state government, the Fair Work Commission and the media, the Rail Tram and Bus Union last week agreed to suspend a four hour train and tram strike planned for 21 August. The union’s decision came after Metro Trains promised to deliver an improved enterprise agreement offer by 5pm on 21 August. 
Members of the union met at Trades Hall in the hours before the offer was due to discuss our campaign. A motion of no confidence in Metro Trains and Yarra Trams was passed unanimously. The same motion also called on the Andrews Labor government to stand with public transport workers and not the companies that are attacking our conditions. The government had earlier told the union that it would join any legal action brought by Metro Trains to ban a strike by train workers.
 Despite the company’s public assurances, the offer eventually received by the union – hours late – is not improved. A meeting of delegates in the union’s rail division voted on 24 August to reject it. One described the draft agreement as a “total joke”. Industrial action is now back on the table. 
Metro is offering a 14 percent pay rise over four years, with 5 percent of this held back until the last year of the agreement. This, from a company which increased profits by 45 percent over the life of the current enterprise agreement. 
The company’s proposal also cuts rostered days off, penalty rates for part-time station staff and established train drivers’ rostering practices. Significantly, the company has also not backed away from the introduction of sectorised running of the rail system. It wants to break up the entire rail network into six or seven smaller sections. The drastic plan is an attempt to deskill train drivers and weaken their industrial power. It also presents a number of serious safety concerns. 
 In a series of meetings held on 25 August, union members also voted to reject Metro’s offer. We will now discuss what action will be necessary to force the company to drop its claims and put a decent offer. It is clear now that negotiation alone will not be sufficient. 
Tram workers are continuing a ban on over-time and will also discuss further action against Yarra Trams, incuding the possibility of a four hour stop work on 27 August. Tram workers have rejected a 15 percent pay rise over four years with the loss of over-time penalties.

Melbourne rail workers reject new offer

Members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union are preparing to halt Melbourne’s train network after 98 percent approved strike action as part of enterprise bargaining. Tram workers who are bargaining with Yarra Trams will also join the four-hour stoppage on 21 August. It will be the first such strike since 1997. 
It has been clear from the start of bargaining that Metro Trains is not interested in negotiating. It came to the table only after the union obtained a Fair Work order forcing it to recognise that a majority of its workers wanted to negotiate.
Since then, the company has more than once cancelled meetings, walked out of meetings and refused to release delegates from work to attend. 
Metro Trains is a private consortium of rail and construction businesses including Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation and Australian companies John Holland and UGL Rail. While media coverage of our dispute has highlighted the comparatively good wages of many rail workers, it has hardly mentioned that this multinational conglomerate is swimming in money. Since taking over the franchise in 2009, MTR has reported profits in excess of $235 million.
And who made these profits? That would be us: the workers who drive the trains, operate the control rooms and signals, staff the stations, sell the tickets and ensure safety on the network.
As a delegate, when I held meetings and visited stations during the protected action ballot “vote yes” campaign, I barely had to make an argument. The resentment was palpable in every station, every signal box and every depot we visited. 
Metro workers are sick of being treated like dogs, sick of being interrogated for taking a sick day, sick of Metro always trying to reinterpret our current agreement to avoid giving us our entitlements. We’re sick of management’s attempts to pit new staff against old and to create hostility between different grades.
It is true that many of our conditions and rates of pay are the envy of workers in other industries. These have been hard fought for, and we are not about to hand them back. Like many workers across the country, we have watched our enterprise agreements get progressively worse over the last decade, with conditions being stripped back and pay rises falling.
The latest proposed enterprise agreement that the company handed to the union had lines drawn through the majority of train drivers’ rostering conditions. Key among these is the requirement that in a single shift, train drivers drive no more than 200km and not more than twice on the same line. These are crucial safety conditions.
The company also wants to cut hours and overtime penalty rates for part-timers, while uncapping the hours full-timers can work. It has suggested that rail workers may be required to work 12-hour shifts on ordinary rates.
The union is asking for the introduction of trauma leave for rail staff who are required to attend scenes where passengers have been fatally injured. The company has flatly refused. The union is also seeking the reintroduction of first aid training for station staff. In the past, all new station staff received this training, but Metro has progressively chipped away at the policy.
Metro rail workers are now left with what we consider to be the bare minimum. We have nothing to bargain off and won’t countenance this while Metro continues to make massive profits off our labour. There is a very strong feeling that now is the time to draw a line in the sand. If we don’t fight, we risk losing many important conditions, and we send a signal to the government and the company that we can be pushed around.

On strike against Metro

Melbourne rail workers reject new offer

Rail and tram workers draw a line in the sand

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