BY SAM WAINWRIGHT
SYDNEY — "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" — this could be the motto of the leaders of the Bus and Tram division of the NSW Rail Tram and Bus Union. On May 20 they finally got the majority of Sydney and Newcastle State Transit Authority bus drivers to accept the state government's pay offer of 10% over two years, an offer they had already rejected three times.
At the first meeting in late February, drivers rejected the offer of 10%, preferring to push for a rise of 27% over three years, to be paid in three instalments of 9%. To push their claim they struck for 48 hours on March 6-7.
Then, at a March 14 follow-up meeting, divisional president Pat Ryan pleaded with members to accept a revised offer from the government still based on 10% over two years, insisting, "you could go out for twelve months and still not get it". She met a furious response and the chair was drowned out with chants of "bullshit" and "nine, nine, nine".
So angry were drivers with the government's derisory offer that a motion to suspend the payment of the division's levies to the ALP was passed with no dissent.
But despite a backflip by Ryan and a unanimous vote in favour of the 27% claim, within a day it had again become clear that the union's leaders had no intention of pursuing the 27% claim. Another planned 48-hour strike was deferred, never to be rescheduled. Two weeks later the offer of 10% was again put to drivers by secret ballot and again rejected.
Union leaders' efforts to grind down drivers finally paid off, with the 10% offer being accepted on May 20 in a depot-by-depot ballot. The vote was close (1217 in favour, 1140 against), with a number of depots rejecting the deal.
State Transit Authority bus drivers are on a base rate just over $16 per hour and most have to do plenty of shift work and overtime to make a decent wage. They compare poorly with Cityrail train drivers who earn around $20 per hour. The pay rise in their new agreement amounts to a pay cut in real terms (the cost of living rose by 6.1% in Sydney in 2001).
[For more information, see the Sparks Bulletin <http://www.sparksweb.com>]
From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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