Here’s Why Train Drivers, Teachers, And Nurses Are All Striking This Week
“The government is essentially trying to bribe workers into operating a train that we know is not safe for commuters or workers."
Sydney is experiencing industrial action on all fronts, as health, transport, and education unions all strike this week for better working conditions and pay.
After longstanding calls to increase public sector wages were not heeded in the recent NSW state budget, unions have scheduled protests in response this week to try and motivate the government to listen. In response, the state government is currently attempting to increase the amount unions can be fined for participating in illegal strikes to $55,000, with the Industrial Relations Committee already moving to block industrial action from nursing unions yesterday.
Here’s what you need to know about who is striking this week in NSW and why.
Rail And Transport Unions Are Fighting For Safety
If you commute in Sydney, you’ve surely noticed that train and bus timetables have been thrown into chaos again this week, as the Rail Train and Bus Union (RTBU) conducts industrial action.
Strikes planned for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday will see services disrupted, with some trains continuing on a “go-slow” schedule which sees them travel no faster than 60 kilometres per hour, with workers refusing to operate foreign-built trains.
For years @RTBUnion have been warning the NSW Government that the conditions they are working in are not safe.
Perrottet refuses to listen.
I support the RTBU in their fight this week for safer trains and fairer pay. pic.twitter.com/hTk7XCK8Rq
— Senator Tony Sheldon (@senator_sheldon) June 28, 2022
The RBTU has been clashing with the government for over a year (remember when the transport minister spat the dummy and cancelled Sydney’s transport network?) over the safety of New South Wale’s public transport network, with safety officials warning that commuters could be “severed from the waist up” by Indonesian built ferries that were built too high to pass under bridges.
Workers are protesting the NSW government’s new Korean-built fleet of trains, with the RTBU arguing for additional safety modifications before they’re fit for use.
The RTBU has threatened to extend the industrial action into next week, after deeming the latest offer from the New South Wales government a “bribe”. Under the government’s offer, drivers who operated the foreign-built fleet without any of the requested modifications would receive an extra $6,000 per year.
“The government is essentially trying to bribe workers into operating a train that we know is not safe for commuters or workers.” RBTU Secretary Alex Claassens said. “Rail workers have been raising serious safety concerns about this fleet for years – even before the trains landed in Australia. But the NSW Government has been fighting back because it doesn’t want to pay to fix the safety problems.”
Nurses And Midwives Vow To Fight For Better Pay And Staffing
Nurses and public health workers — the people responsible for carrying us through the pandemic — are still fighting for fair wages and formal staffing arrangements to ensure the public health system is safe for the public.
Planned industrial action this week would have seen several hospitals in Sydney stop work between 12 – 24 hours, but a dispute lodged by NSW Health to the Industrial Relations Commission resulted in health staff being ordered not to participate.
Not to be dissuaded, the NSWNMA instead held a general meeting at Town Hall yesterday, where it formally moved to escalate industrial measures. The union is now seeking a 7 percent pay increase for members, as well as formal patient staffing ratios. In the formal movement yesterday the NSWNMA warned that greater striking measures are incoming, stating that the government “left us no other option but to continue to the fight for shift by shift ratios through sustained and escalating industrial action”.
Overworked nurses and midwives have previously told Junkee of how dangerous the understaffing of NSW public hospitals currently is. One midwife detailed an example where she was expected to care for fourteen pregnant people, supported by a single assistant in nursing.
NSWNMA Acting Assistant General Secretary, Michael Whaites warned yesterday that without urgent changes to the staffing systems in NSW hospitals, staff would continue to burn out and leave the profession. “Until our members experience improvements to their workloads or witness meaningful changes to address workload fatigue, sadly, we’ll continue to see nurses and midwives leaving NSW, or the profession altogether. They are done,” said Michael Whaites.
Teachers Are Facing A Classroom Staffing Crisis
Public teachers condemned the New South Wales state budget as it was handed down last week, painting the three percent wage increase as a ‘pay-cut’ for falling short of the current 5 percent inflation rate.
Teacher understaffing is reportedly rife across New South Wales at the moment, with Year 12 English students being combined in classes of over fifty students while P.E and history teachers were forced to teach woodwork classes.
“Seven out of 10 teachers are reconsidering their future in the profession because of the workload,” said Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos. “This is a classroom crisis. Every week in public and non-government schools, thousands of lessons are not being delivered because of teacher shortages. What more fundamental responsibility does a government have than to ensure there is a fully qualified teacher in every classroom, every day?”
Catholic and public teachers across NSW will all participate in strikes this Thursday, with a demonstration scheduled in Sydney’s Macquarie Street.