The Big Sydney Trains Meltdown: Twenty Four Little Hours Later.

(source)

Although in reduced timetables, this Tuesday Sydney trains are running again. So far, no underground station collapsed, no train caught fire or exploded or derailed. Nobody has died, gotten injured or locked inside trains for hours on end. Indeed, nobody got locked inside trains. Period, full stop.

Nothing happened. The network is working safely, if with delays.

Today, in other words, trains are running as they would have ran yesterday, under the limited scope protected industrial action the NSW State Government preempted with a total shutdown of the entire rail network in Sydney, under the pretext that the limited protected industrial action posed unspecified – but presumably awful, awful I tells ya – “safety risks”. And the NSW State Government did that as they vociferously accused rail workers and their union for “hijacking the city” with a “terrorist-like activity” (I trust Peter Hartcher will find a way to argue all that was indeed the unions’ fault).

NSW RTBU's Secretary Max Claassen,
in David Elliott's imagination (source)

Challenged a number of times to produce the relevant risk assessment, NSW Government representatives failed to show anything. They were then subpoenaed. Again, nothing. How come? I don’t know, but I guess that may be because … there wasn’t anything? It makes one wonder who was actually spreading “bullshit” or who was committing acts of “industrial bastardry”.

Much calmer than yesterday, NSW Minister for Transport David Elliot now says he was sleeping (no doubt, he had terrifying nightmares) when Sydney Train executives and Transport NSW bureaucrats decided on their own to shutdown the entire metropolitan rail network. Not just that, Elliott had not read the “risk assessment” and it was now when he requested it from his subordinates.

Botton line, the NSW Government had to withdraw the action it started against the Rail, Tram and Buses Union before Fair Work Commission. The negotiations towards a new enterprise bargaining agreement re-started.

As the old song goes, what a difference a day makes – uh?  Twenty four little hours. The guys and gals from RTBU earned the right to gloat. 

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I, however, will have to eat humble pie. In a presser this morning Labor federal leader, Anthony Albanese, actually supported (well, sorta) Sydney Trains workers:

Well, the Government now seems to have conceded that it was a Government decision to shut down the trains. Workers were there ready to undertake their day’s work in the early hours of the morning. I want unions and the government to come to terms, to have agreements. No-one wants this level of disruption … But what David Elliott to be fair to him has inherited is a mess from Andrew Constance. Is a mess whereby no agreements are in place; there’s been no advance. … Just have a look at the difference in the rhetoric between Scott Morrison talking about the heroes of the pandemic, our nurses … Our transport workers have been essentially shut down by the government of New South Wales with the decision to shut the public transport network. What we need to do is recognise that during the pandemic, the people who kept this country going were our nurses, our cleaners, our public transport workers, truck drivers, our retail workers. They need to be treated with respect and they deserve better than a Prime Minister who just sledges them without knowing the fact.

He didn’t broach the topic, mind you: a reporter (from the Murdoch stable, maybe?) prompted that with a question.

Regardless, all that is well and good, but what about those workers’ demands? Oh, well, coming from Albo, something is something, better than nothing, I guess.

Too much optimism, however, may be a tad premature. The Guardian (Oz) reporter Michael McGowan may be onto something.

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Ellen Fanning has a way with mischief. She invited Craig Emerson (former Labor MP) and Greg Sheridan (a hack from The Oz, flagship of the Murdoch collection of rags) to The Drum today.

This is how Fanning introduced the segment about Sydney Trains and, more generally, the right to strike in Australia:

Let me start with you, Craig. Isn’t the fact of the matter that the last federal Labor government, of which you were a member, made it virtually impossible to strike in this country and in fact there wasn’t a strike in New South Wales - perhaps people have forgotten what a strike is, but that wasn’t one!

I won’t detail the discussion that followed. You can watch it here or read its automatically generated transcript here. It’s worth it, trust me.

Here it will suffice to remark how Emerson tried to dodge the Gillard Cabinet and his own personal responsibility in curtailing the right to strike in Australia. Those interested in all the legal requirements imposed on workers and unions before taking protected industrial action, can read Fanning’s questions and the University of Adelaide’s Prof. Andrew Stewart’s answers. Instructive and accessible, but, best of all, entirely free of Legalese: in plain English.

Finally, admirers of former Labor glories Bob Hawke and Paul Keating may enjoy (or not) to learn of Greg Sheridan’s high opinion of the Price and Income Accord. Funny, isn’t it, how Labor and their arch-enemies agree on this: workers must be denied any real right to strike.

I must confess: I’m a bit of a fan of Fanning.

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Give the Greens some thought these elections. And, as always, join your union.