New Minister, new action and other forms of pressure – it’s time to get this bargain done

This afternoon, as you will have no doubt seen, Transport Minister Jo Haylen resigned after a series of revelations regarding the use of government vehicles for personal trips. In the midst of an ugly and tense bargaining dispute, the departure of the Transport Minister presents both a threat and an opportunity. A threat in that we don’t know how a new Transport Minister will behave toward us, and an opportunity if the Government wants to clear its dirty laundry and give them a fresh start. It will be interesting to see how the next week or so plays out.

In the meantime, our campaign goes on. On Sunday night, we notified of 3 new industrial actions designed to get our industrial action kickstarted again. Given the Government’s willingness to commence legal action of any kind against us with no notice, it’s important that we focus our actions on exerting political pressure. The actions are:

1. A go slow of 23km/h slower in areas posted 80km/h or above – this action will be contingent on whether the Government refunds all commuter fares for the week between 13 and 17 January – the week we were unfairly blamed for the meltdown across the network.
2. A ban on serving alcohol on Regional Trains.
3. A ban on REMs (apart from safety critical REMs)

We are currently in the process of considering our next round of industrial action which will likely be notified toward the end of this week.

Another form of pressure is using the multi to refresh our application regarding our fellow members on the light rail in Sydney. You will remember this was a feature early in the bargain and was fiercely opposed with Government staunchly against it. We will reinvigorate this strategy and file with the Fair Work Commission tonight. It’s easy to forget given the fight we find ourselves in that the light rail dispute continues to boil over – any support we can give each other to achieve what we deserve is a good thing.

Finally, we have our first court date in the Federal Court on Friday regarding the theft of members wages after they engaged in protected action at the end of last year. On this day, we should find out when the case will be heard by the court and the parties will be ordered to produce evidence by a particular date. If you were affected by the theft, we may call you in the coming weeks to get a statement from you, so please keep an eye on your emails and messages.

When all is said and done, this could have all been resolved months ago if the Government was willing to come back to the bargaining table and negotiate again. Their strategy of ignoring us and hoping we’ll go away isn’t working and won’t work. Our message to the new Transport Minister and the Premier is to sit down and get it done.