The rail network in Sydney is at risk of shutting down as a confrontation between powerful rail unions and the state Labor government intensifies. The government has sought legal action to halt industrial action, citing the potential for economic harm and risks to public safety, particularly on New Year’s Eve.
It has been building towards this for months: an ultimate showdown between powerful rail unions and a state Labor government as Sydney ’s rail network edges closer to a shutdown. After an interim injunction blocking industrial action on Thursday, the government has now pulled the trigger on one of the last legal weapons in its armory.
Taking a leaf out of the former Coalition government’s playbook, the Minns government will make its case to the industrial umpire on Christmas Eve that industrial action should be terminated or suspended due to the economic harm or risks to public safety it poses.After schools break and people leave for holidays, patronage drops substantially during the Christmas week, taking pressure off the rail network. That’s no consolation for those who rely on it to get to work or to catch up with family and friends for Christmas festivities. Yet what looms is the rail system’s single busiest day on New Year’s Eve. Even in a good year, it leaves transport officials on the edge of their seats in control rooms, hoping that a train breakdown or a dumb act does not throw the network into chaos in the hours before and after the fireworks. Now, the prospect of severe disruptions when up to 1.5 million gather on Sydney’s harbour front within hours for New Year’s Eve fireworks helps the government make the case that public safety is at serious risk.Over the last few months, the wider economic cost of repeated disruption to a rail network which transports up to a million people each weekday has also been mounting.If you feel like you’ve been here before, you have. Standoffs between rail unions and the state government are repeated every two to three years as the two sides push each other to the brink while bickering over new enterprise agreements.This time, brinkmanship is pitting NSW Labor ministers against those who helped them win the 2023 election and who might not easily forget the past six month
RAIL UNIONS INDUSTRIAL ACTION SYDNEY TRANSPORT NEW YEAR's EVE
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