Sydney rail workers have been banned from taking industrial action for four months, with the Fair Work Commission imposing a “cooling off” order lasting until 1 July. This is just the latest twist in an almost 12-month struggle between the NSW Labor government and rail workers over enterprise bargaining.
The dispute shows all the pitfalls of trying to “box clever” through ducking and weaving around the anti-strike laws. If rail workers want to win a real pay increase and protect their conditions, the Fair Work Commission will have to be defied—and the laws that ban and restrict industrial action will have to be broken.
The latest Fair Work ruling comes after the RTBU tried to push negotiations across the line with a drivers’ go-slow campaign last week. The informal “stay-home” by train crews caused network chaos.
It is a credit to the determination of the rank-and-file of the RTBU that the union is still fighting—600 train drivers and crew didn’t show up for work on 14 February when Sydney Trains said they would not pay any union member who participated in the go-slow action.
But the dispute should have been won months ago. The “boxing clever” strategy of the Combined Rail Unions (CRU) has run hot and cold for months. Work bans have been imposed, then dropped, industrial action ended in “good faith” and then started again.
The past nine months has been an endless parade of Fair Work hearings, some even initiated by the unions.
The rail workers’ claim for a 32 per cent wage rise over four years would be a major win, not just for NSW public sector workers but for all workers fighting declining real wages while the cost of living goes up and up.
But with no workplace meetings to organise and plan action there are limitations to how long an on–again, off-again campaign can be maintained. Instead of building unity across all the unions of the CRU, solidarity is fraying.
The longer the dispute has gone on, rank-and-file momentum has been lost and there are cracks appearing between the unions that make up the CRU.
Differences have emerged between the electricians, members of the Electrical Trade Union (ETU), and the RTBU, covering drivers, guards and general rail workers. It has been the ETU bans that have been responsible for the most strategic disruption to train services so far.
More than 1000 ETU workers struck for eight hours on 12 February to fight Sydney Trains’ attempt to remove the clause that ensures unions are consulted before any workplace changes are made around issues of safety and risk assessments.
The ETU is also opposed to clauses that would allow Sydney Trains to reclassify electricians as new technology is introduced.
ETU members were angry that while they were on strike, RTBU officials were inside Parliament House for negotiations.
The ETU has now withdrawn from the CRU bargaining team and is looking to negotiate a separate enterprise agreement.
Fair Work is a graveyard of disputes
In 2018, Fair Work banned a strike by the RTBU on the grounds that the strike was a “threat to the economy” and that it was “threatening to endanger the welfare of parts of the population”.
Since then, the RTBU has ducked and weaved to avoid Fair Work banning industrial action.
That approach finally led to the RTBU officials tying their own hands behind their back, telling Fair Work in January that there would be no further strike action.
Playing by Fair Work’s rules has meant that the rail workers’ campaign has been derailed, over and over again, in Fair Work hearings.
And the latest offer from Sydney Trains in January of 14 per cent pay and 1 per cent super is still a wage cut in real terms.
It is shameful that the NSW Labor government is using Fair Work to restrict rail workers’ right to take industrial action.
But instead of unions trying to manipulate the Fair Work process, the shackles on the right to strike need to be broken. The CRU has enough industrial power to defy any Fair Work orders.
We can’t let Fair Work determine whether or not workers can strike, and whether or not jobs and conditions are maintained or workers get the real wage increase they are fighting for.
Rail workers need mass meetings to democratically determine the future of their campaign. United strike action can win.
By Ian Rintoul
