Qld train drivers strike

Dave Riley, Brisbane

Queensland train drivers and crews went on strike for 14 hours at midnight on February 2 over a new enterprise bargaining agreement, in defiance of an order from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) banning industrial action while negotiations were under way.

The 4000 striking workers, who are covered by the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees (AFULE), returned to work the following afternoon, but services were disrupted late in the day.

The February 3 Brisbane Courier Mail reported that the AFULE had rejected Queensland Rail's pay offer of an extra 4.5% a year through "productivity" trade-offs. Instead, it wanted more pay, a 38-hour week and two days off each week.

The strike cost Queensland Rail $4 million in freight shipping fees. TransLink spent $160,000 putting on extra bus services as more than 150,000 people were left stranded at train stations.

Reeling under a series of disasters in the state's health system, Queensland Labor Premier Peter Beattie, who is a former rail union official, exploited the opportunity to boost his standing with employers by calling the strike "a bloody disgrace".

Industrial relations minister Tom Barton, a former general-secretary of the Trades and Labor Council, said the AFULE's refusal to comply with a QIRC order to return to work has opened the way for hefty fines to be imposed on the union.

The AFULE, however, is threatening more industrial action, despite risking fines of up to $50,000 and deregistration.

From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.

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From GLW issue 655