Bus drivers strike over privatisation plans
More than 1,000 Sydney bus drivers walked off the job for 24 hours at midnight on Wednesday, 17 May. Their strike went ahead despite the Industrial Relations Commission ruling at a late night hearing that the action was illegal.
The drivers’ decision to strike was a response to the state transport minister announcing that the government will privatise the bus network in the inner west. Under the plan, the operation of 233 bus routes will be put out to private tender.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union says that the announcement is an about-face from written assurances provided in December that the routes would continue to be operated by the state authority. It warns that routes deemed unprofitable will be cut and workers will be sacked if the network is privatised.
The latest announcement adds to the long list of NSW public transport services turned over to the private sector. The Liberal government has sold off Newcastle’s buses, ferries and interchanges and Sydney’s ferry services, and is in the process of selling two rail lines in Sydney. During her time as transport minister in the O’Farrell government, Gladys Berejiklian initiated the privatisation of Sydney’s ferries, despite the protests of unions representing ferry workers.
Privatising Sydney’s large and heavily unionised public bus network would be a bigger jewel in the government’s neoliberal crown. “We will have to pick a fight with the unions, most definitely”, John Sidoti, member for Drummoyne in the inner west, recently told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The drivers’ first action is a sign that they are geared up for the battle. Ignoring the government’s threats to pursue further action against the union and the workers, all but just six drivers refused to turn up to work on the strike day. We will need to carry out more of these actions and maintain drivers’ resolve to ignore anti-strike rulings to save public bus services and protect the conditions of public transport workers.
