Jenny Long, Sydney
As Sydney enters its third week of massive disruption to commuter rail services — with up to 121 daily commuter services having been cancelled — some astonishing facts have been emerging from this remarkable dispute.
One is the surprisingly high level of sympathy from the public for the train drivers — despite repeated train journeys plagued by long delays and overcrowding on reduced train services.
From the very outset of the dispute, the corporate media and Premier Bob Carr's Labor government have pilloried the train drivers. The February 19 Daily Telegraph, for example, ran a front-page banner headline "Fight to the Last Kebab". The accompanying article claimed the rail dispute was the result of driver fears of losing their "beer and barbeque lifestyle".
The commuting public hasn't been taken in by the anti-driver campaign. The letters pages of the daily papers have been filled with public criticism of the Carr government for shortsightedness and refusal to deal with problems in rail staffing and infrastructure that have been known for years.
Current and former drivers and other RailCorp staff have told radio stations shocking tales about their working conditions. These include days off regularly cancelled, being bullied into dangerous levels of overtime, significant fatigue and unsafe work practices, lack of toilet and rest facilities and a management culture that blames workers for each new accident or crisis of management.
Many commuters have recognised that the government is hell-bent on running the rail service into the ground, and each new fact — like the revelation that one driver had been forced to work for 100 days without a day off — has made the extent of the government's neglect of adequate staffing levels even clearer.
More and more call are being made for transport minister Michael Costa and Carr to resign or be sacked.
There has also been significant sympathy for the drivers from other groups of RailCorp workers, including guards and station staff, who are subject to the same overtime regime and punitive management culture.
Socialist Alliance members collecting petition signatures from commuters supporting the drivers and distributing leaflets blaming Carr and Costa have been overwhelmed by the positive response they have received.
Another astonishing fact is the way the dispute has come about, with drivers refusing overtime despite pressure from the right-wing Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) leadership to meet the government's demands.
Drivers have not held back from telling journalists that their union is "stuffed" and more interested in maintaining a cosy relationship with the state Labor government than representing its members' interests, especially when these run counter to the government's agenda of cost cutting, service reductions, massive redundancies and corporatisation.
On day three of the crisis, the government entered desperate negotiations with the RTBU which has been scrambling to regain some credibility with drivers in order to sell them a deal to end the crisis.
The government, RailCorp bosses and the RTBU agreed on a $5 million package of up to $400 per month for drivers to work up to three extra shifts, and $500,000 to improve facilities for drivers, plus promises to improve in a range of areas, including recruitment, fast tracking of driver training and negotiations about the conduct of fitness and drug and alcohol testing.
But hundreds of "rebel" drivers, deeply cynical about their union, didn't buy the deal straight away, despite early claims by the union and government that the problem was fixed.
Services may improve in the coming weeks as many drivers agree reluctantly to accept doing overtime again for a "trial period", but there is much more trouble ahead for the RTBU and the government, with talk of an opposition ticket being run in the union elections.
Other rail unions are also under pressure from their members over exactly the same issues of excessive overtime and punitive management. The commuting public and even backbench Labor MPs — one of whom reportedly told caucus that Carr had "more problems than Osama [bin Laden]" — are also drawing the links between the crisis in rail and the scandal of preventable deaths in public hospitals, as well as the continuing crisis of the underfunded public school system.
Workers in other public sector unions plagued with pro-ALP union leaderships that are only too willing to collaborate with the Carr government's anti-public services agenda have also taken note of the rail drivers' success at "self-organisation".
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 25, 2004.
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