Merry Christmas, Melbourne. There’s a chance you might be walking home today.
The city’s all-powerful Rail, Tram, and Bus Union has its back up once again, following a tumultuous 12 months that’s seen it bring Melbourne to a virtual standstill on multiple occasions, as waves of industrial action shut down Melbourne’s public transport networks.
And they’ve woken up pissed again this morning.
The Union is considering taking snap, unprotected industrial action today – in one for or another – in response to Metro sacking five track maintenance workers yesterday.
The sackings, done just four days before Christmas, are the culmination of a thorough investigation into safety breaches, following a serious incident back in October that allegedly saw an infrastructure worker struck by a train at Laverton whilst undertaking works near the Werribee line.
The Union is also alleging that internal Metro documents show a number of open faults on key inner-city lines – including the stretch connecting Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations – that Metro is aware of, but not addressing, pose threats to the safety of both trains and commuters.
The RTBU is considering taking industrial action today in response to what state secretary Luba Grigorovitch describes as heavy-handedness from Metro in sacking the workers.
What form the industrial action will take is unknown. However, it could involve disruptions to scheduled train services – such as no express trains, enforcing no station skipping, cancelling services, or shutting down parts of the network altogether. Another option also would see all Myki gates opened and station staff refusing to check commuters tickets – effectively withholding a day’s worth of ticketing revenue from the company.
It’s believed that the RTBU may also refuse to comply with the Andrews Government‘s plan to introduce all-night weekend public transport from January 1st.
Metro has responded this morning to the Union’s claims, stating that all known faults are being addressed in a standardised manner, and that it is a requirement of all maintenance staff to wear the proper safety equipment and follow safety procedures when entering train corridors.
The stand-off continues. Keep an eye out, working pals.
Photo: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.
Source: Herald Sun.
