Aussies unleash at Sydney train delays as expert reveals why industrial action could do more damage than good

Frustrated commuters and rival unions have unleashed themselves after the ratbag strike once again threw Sydney’s rail network into disarray.

About 1,000 services, or 80 percent of the daily total, were canceled Wednesday. The ongoing strike action is expected to cause further chaos for commuters over the next two days.

Drive slower and work bans by the Electrical Trades Union, issued as part of a long-running pay dispute with the NSW government, blamed for widespread disruptions that caused some trains to be delayed by up to six hours.

“This is the boa constrictor strangling our network… this is the cumulative impact of hundreds of industrial bans,” Transport Minister Jo Haylen said.

Heavy thunderstorms that devastated the city on Wednesday evening added to the chaos.

“All suburban and intercity trains will return to their stabling areas by midnight to help manage the ongoing serious impact of today’s protected industrial action, as tonight’s severe weather also knocks out more services on the network,” the latest travel warning said.

‘Long delays, service cancellations and very significant service gaps on the rail network are expected to continue tomorrow as a result of ongoing protected industrial action.

‘Please postpone non-essential travel, allow extra travel time and consider all your transport options.

The union’s tactics earned little admiration on social media on Wednesday.

“This stupid union stunt on the trains to and from Sydney will get you killed,” one commuter told X.

‘Packing people onto trains and then letting them run at a waking pace in the middle of summer means it won’t be a surprise if someone collapses and can’t get help. I’m not making any allies here.’

Another added: ‘What you don’t understand is that due to COVID the majority of Aussies didn’t get a pay rise between 2020 and 2022.’

‘Since then, most Aussies have had 2-3% MAX per year!! Sydney Trains employees continued to receive pay increases during COVID-19. I hope you all get karma for this.”

A third wrote: ‘Brother, can Sydney get automated trains yet? f*** the trains and especially f*** the train crew.”

Another replied: ‘The great irony of the Sydney Rail Union strike is that the driverless trains are all running fine.

‘If you fight for a pay rise, you will be replaced by AI anyway. Maybe you should demand some further training instead. We don’t have to pay $150,000 a year for someone to stop the train and go.”

Many were not looking forward to Thursday’s commute.

‘Who do we ask for a taxi voucher?’ someone asked

Another added: ‘It took me three and a half to get to work this morning instead of fifty minutes. Should I expect the same tomorrow morning?’

Sydney Trains responded: ‘Due to the unpredictable nature of the protected industrial action, we are only aware of the impact on a service closer to departure time, so we cannot provide an estimate of how your journey may be delayed or affected.’

Managing director Jack McGuire of Red Union Support Hub, a group of politically unaffiliated workers’ associations that aims to challenge traditional unions, branded the strike action a “ratbag” way to “create headlines”.

While he could not comment on the details of the negotiations between the unions and the NSW government, Mr McGuire said ‘there are a lot of ways to skin a cat in any industrial dispute, especially with a government’.

“These guys are looking for ways to make headlines and get people talking,” McGuire told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

‘We prefer industrial action that puts pressure on politicians and bureaucrats and not on the general public.

“There are other ways to embarrass politicians that don’t necessarily impact the public: you can do work in a different way than normal.

‘We have been reasonably successful in getting all our unions to receive pay increases, without being too cowardly about it.

“We usually pull back some of the administration and reporting that the politicians and bureaucrats really like.”

“That gives them nothing to do and that puts pressure on them, without having any consequences for the public.”

One possible tactic the unions could employ is not to collect fares, leaving commuters behind.

“We’ve been able to achieve success without completely disengaging the workforce and being disruptive,” McGuire said.

“If they want to borrow some of our negotiators, they are welcome.”

Mr McGuire, who was a member of the Liberal Party before founding Red Unions, expects more industrial action but believes it will not solve the central problem.

“One of the biggest problems the country is facing right now is that inflation is skyrocketing,” he said.

“The root cause of that is government spending, the huge increase in the money supply, so of course there is inflation, it’s all these politicians’ fault.

“When you see rampant inflation in the economy, it is essentially a silent tax on the population, impacting workers and the least advantaged.

“So the only mechanism workers have to ensure their dollars have the same purchasing power as they did last year is to take industrial action, because the politicians don’t want to acknowledge that they are part of the problem.”

Mr McGuire said the Red Unions were initially formed during the pandemic period to serve nurses in Queensland because they were concerned their union was at risk in its dealings with the then Labor government.

As a result, the Red Unions have included in their constitution that they will not financially support any political party, unlike traditional labor unions.

“Workers are coming to us in droves because they want someone who will focus solely on them and not have to worry at all about getting their comrades into parliament,” Mr McGuire said, as the group’s total has 22,000 members.

According to Transport NSW, delays on the T4 line were up to six hours before rush hour.

Sydney Trains CEO Matt Longland warned of Major delays on the Central Coast line on Thursday and overnight maintenance work at Gosford was not completed as planned.

‘“The advice we are getting, especially from the electricity union, is that there will be no movement tonight in relation to their work bans, and these types of delays that we have seen today will continue tomorrow until today,” he said. on Wednesday.

“So we’re asking everyone to plan ahead. If you have to travel tomorrow, stay up to date with the latest information.

The NSW government is exploring legal options over what it says are “unacceptable” union work bans, which emerged amid a long-running pay dispute.

Authorities said members of the Electrical Trades Union failed to carry out critical maintenance on two key parts of the train network – at Homebush and Bondi Junction – on Tuesday evening, leading to significant delays.

For the services that did run, members of the Rail, Tram and Bus unions deliberately slowed trains on the tracks, reducing speeds by 14mph on lines where trains usually travel at 50mph.

By 6.30am, hundreds of train services had already been canceled and many more delayed, causing significant disruption as hundreds of thousands of workers tried to get to work.

The NSW government’s long-running battle with the state’s machinists has led to them offering the union a 14 per cent pay rise.

But unions have remained steadfast in their demands, calling for a significant pay increase, a 35-hour working week and a 1 percent increase in their pensions.

Eight months after negotiating a new pay deal, Ms Haylen said the Government was offering rail workers a 13 per cent pay rise plus a 1 per cent super increase over four years.

But that offer was less than half of the demands of the combined railroad unions, which was a 32 percent wage increase over four years (eight percent per year).

Railway, Tram and Bus Union Secretary of State Toby Warnes said the union was not impressed by the proposed deal.

“The current wage offer, the only thing we’re really sure about exactly what it looks like, seems a bit frivolous,” Mr Warnes told ABC Radio.

‘(The) disrespect that has been expressed towards them, that is affecting how commuters view our members, it is not nice, and we would like to see the government shift that rhetoric, if it wants us to go the right way to sit. consider this offer.’

But Ms Haylen said: ‘This is a fair and reasonable offer that represents a real increase in take-home pay.

“I would ask employees to consider this and ideally support it so that we can end this dispute and return our train network to an operation that I know you are proud to operate.”

Sydney Trains has set a deadline on Thursday for the unions to provide a principled response to the offer.