Furious Aussies slam Sydney Trains strike as travel chaos looms in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve – as Qantas shares an urgent message to travellers

Angry commuters have criticized Sydney Trains and Buses as commuters face a new round of potential strikes in the run-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

NSW Premier Chris Minns obtained a last-minute federal court injunction earlier this month, preventing the rail union from taking industrial action.

The court, however, rejected the state government’s technical argument for declaring the industrial action invalid on Thursday afternoon.

This means the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) was given the green light for as many as 8,000 workers to strike in the run-up to the festive season.

The move could bring trains through the port city to a standstill for 24 hours, causing travel chaos for commuters.

NSW TrainLink said services to Wollongong and Bomaderry had already stopped on Thursday, with fears more train lines could be affected in the coming days.

The threatened strikes sparked outrage among Sydney residents, with commuters lashing out at the union and government for failing to reach an agreement.

‘Excessive. I’m tired of these clowns,” one person wrote on social media.

The union has not said when or if industrial action will take place, but has threatened that workers will do “whatever it takes to achieve what they deserve.”

‘The government is a clown. If only they would negotiate with the workers,” a second person agreed.

“The RTBU are absolute losers,” a third wrote.

A fourth added: ‘I loved it when they went on TV saying nothing they do is against the people and then immediately threatened to shut down the whole network. Like stop hanging around in people’s lives’.

Meanwhile, Qantas has sought to reassure passengers that strike action by maintenance technicians will not affect the airline’s flights in the run-up to Christmas.

The airline said it prepared strike action on Friday, and similar actions by engineers earlier in December had no impact on customers.

But unplanned maintenance issues, adverse weather conditions or other events could still impact operations, the flagship airline said.

“Our teams are working hard to ensure that this industrial action has minimal impact on customers’ holiday plans and we have put a number of contingency measures in place and deployed additional resources on site to ensure our customers get away as planned,” he said. a Qantas spokesperson. in a statement.

Qantas said around 160 line maintenance engineers were scheduled to work during Friday’s industrial action and additional groups taking action were part of long-term maintenance teams that did not provide technical support during daily operations.

Qantas has sought to reassure passengers that strike action by maintenance technicians will not affect the airline’s flights in the run-up to Christmas

NSW RTBU secretary Toby Warnes (left) explained that the union is planning industrial action on New Year’s Eve if demands are not met

The Federal Court dismissed the state government’s order, which sought to invalidate the industrial action (photo, NSW Premier Chris Minns)

It comes after the RTBU was allowed to impose a raft of work bans ‘immediately’ following Thursday’s Federal Court victory.

The industrial action could lead to the closure of the network unless the trains run 24 hours a day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

The RTBU has so far refrained from issuing a work ban for members and has not yet indicated when this will happen.

However, the union and several other railroad unions had voted to go on strike from December 28, which would have a major impact on Sydneysiders’ Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

RTBU secretary Toby Warnes revealed that his members would only operate at half capacity on New Year’s Eve if the union’s demands were not met, and that he believed the union and government could reach an agreement before December 28.

“RTBU members will do whatever it takes to achieve what they deserve,” Mr Warnes said The Daily Telegraph.

‘I think the government and we will reach an agreement…’ [we’re] getting closer by the minute – when we actually talk to each other.”

Businesses and restaurants could take a big hit if the planned disruptions go ahead, as venues often rely on foot traffic during the festive season and one of Sydney’s biggest nights of the year.

Businesses could face a massive loss of revenue of up to $78 million on New Year’s Eve if two-thirds of partygoers stayed home, Business NSW estimates.

Business NSW also estimated a loss of up to $59 million if the New Year’s Eve crowd was half as large as normal.