It’s been a week of chaos for commuters, as industrial action by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has caused the number of peak-hour train services to be slashed and speed limits lowered to 60kph on the remaining services. As of Friday, July 1, the RTBU has suspended services on all foreign-built trains, which takes out 70 per cent of the NSW train fleet, adding yet more delays to services across the network.
How long will the disruption last?
This is hard to say. The head of the RTBU, Alex Claassens said on Wednesday, June 29 that industrial action would continue until “further notice” unless the NSW transport ministry agreed to the full list of the Union’s demands with a “legally enforceable document”. Right now, further industrial action is planned for July 6 and 8, although services should be relatively undisrupted between July 2-5 and July 7.
But why exactly is the RTBU striking?
The first thing to understand is that the industrial action taking place at the moment is unrelated to the disruptions that blindsided commuters in February, when the state government-run Transport for NSW shut down the entire rail network across NSW with virtually no warning. That was caused by planned industrial action by the RTBU in response to a dispute over an enterprise agreement that the Union wanted redrafted to be more favourable for rail workers.
The current industrial action is in relation to a new fleet of Korean-built trains, which the RTBU says are unsafe for both rail workers and commuters. Concerns about an allegedly deadly design flaw with the $2.43 million trains had been raised back in 2019, when it was discovered that train guards might not be able to adequately monitor passengers embarking and disembarking. The train’s design relies almost entirely on CCTV with no audio to monitor the movements of passengers on and off the train. The design also prevents the driver’s door from opening during the critical 15-second period before the train departs, creating the potential for a passenger to become caught by closing doors and dragged without the driver knowing. The new design also allows the train to be hypothetically operated by a single driver with no guards, and despite government assurances that the new fleet will still require guards to operate safely, the RTBU says jobs are nevertheless at risk.
The government had offered some concessions earlier this week, committing to spending $264 million on modifying the fleet with additional safety measures, but this proposal was not agreed to by the RBTU, with Claassens noting that the Union had previously been in a position before where a government proposal was reneged upon. “This isn’t the first time the NSW government has promised it will fix the safety issues. Rail workers and commuters have been burnt too many times to believe what one minister in one meeting says,” Claassens noted.
The aforementioned minister is David Elliott, head of NSW transport, who made a major backflip this week on the government’s position that the contested fleet was sufficiently safe in its design, by proposing the $264 million package to enhance safety measures. However, this fell short of all the demands made by the Union.
What happens now?
With the government’s first package now nixed, the pressure is on for David Elliott to propose a package that the RBTU will agree to, although he has so far refused to meet every demand by the Union, saying this would 'give the deeds' to the trains to the RTBU. The suspension of all foreign-built trains is an extreme move from the RBTU and Claassens said on the morning of July 1, “I’m not sure where we go from here”. Normal services will be resumed from Saturday, July 2, but only until Wednesday, July 6, when foreign-built trains will once again be suspended. A similar strike is also planned for Friday, July 8 if an agreement has not been reached.