Rail workers picket Goss

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE -- More than 100 angry rail workers booed Queensland Premier Wayne Goss outside a Labor Party function in Townsville on March 23 over plans to close the Townsville railway workshops by the end of 1996.

Goss refused to meet union representatives over the protest. Allan Hegarty, shop steward convener of the Metal Workers Union, said the premier's reaction was cowardly.

“He came here in 1989 before he was premier and told us he would look after us if we voted for him”, he said.

“He said our jobs were safe, that we had a future with the railways. That was all lies and treachery.”

Hegarty added that the workers still hoped the government would change its mind. “They changed their minds over the railway line closures west of the Great Dividing Range, and they changed their minds over the IndyCar Grand Prix”, he said.

“They have committed themselves to providing $30 to $40 million in the next three years to keep a millionaires' car race going, so maybe they will have second thoughts about throwing nearly 400 people out of work.”

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