Darren Galea
Organiser

We have been receiving many questions and phone calls regarding the progress of the V/Line Enterprise Agreements that have now expired. Unfortunately, at this stage there is no progress to report on.

The RTBU has been advised that the V/Line Enterprise Agreements are now classified as “major agreements”, meaning before the Log of Claims (LOC) can be communicated with the RTBU and negotiations therefore begin, the Premier Daniel Andrews, the Treasurer Tim Pallas and the Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne all need to approve it.

The RTBU has written to the Government a number of times dating back to January this year to request that bargaining commences as a matter of urgency, however it is clear that the Victorian Government are in no rush to finalise these EAs as we are yet to hear back from them.

In our recent letter from Branch Secretary Luba Grigorovitch to the Premier, Treasurer and Minister, we have requested clarification as to why the V/Line EAs have been classified as “major agreements” and what exactly that means going forward.

We will continue to put pressure on V/Line and the Government in the hopes of beginning bargaining as soon as possible.

We will continue to update members as this progresses, however if you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me or the Union Office on 8630 9100.

Luba Grigorovitch
Branch Secretary

After months of negotiations for the Metro Operations Enterprise Agreement (EA), the RTBU has officially lodged a Protected Industrial Action (PIA) Ballot application with the Fair Work Commission.

At a meeting of all Metro Rail Division Delegates on Tuesday 18 June, Delegates voted unanimously in favour of a ballot for union members to engage in protected industrial action.

With management at odds with the bargaining team on many key claims, Delegates are frustrated by Metro’s posturing and want to see progress towards a new agreement.

Members have made it very clear that their priority is to retain current conditions and achieve a wage increase that recognises cost of living and value of their labour contribution. Taking PIA will be the RTBUs last resort, however if a fair deal does not look like being reached in a timely manner, then we will proceed.

The proposed protected industrial action will potentially cover the full gamut of Metro’s frontline services, including:

– 4 hour, 24 hour and 48 hour work stoppage

– Refusal to check metropolitan train tickets

– Uniform ban

– Refusal to make some announcements

– Refusal to alter timetabled services

– Ban on all overtime

Operational safety and a refusal to take shortcuts that help Metro accrue lucrative bonus payments will be key actions that we are pursuing in order to get a fair outcome.

Metro have continued to pocket generous profits for shareholders since winning the new franchise contract (MR4). In this EA, we are asking for reasonable working conditions and a fair wage increase.

We will continue to negotiate in pursuit of a resolution that is acceptable to members, but at this point in time it has been made very clear to the bargaining team that Metro have a way to go if they are interested in finding a resolution. 

As part of the Protected Industrial Action Ballot, members covered by the Metro Rail Operations Enterprise Agreement will get a vote on whether they want to take industrial action.

With the potential of Industrial Action looming, it is important that all members of Metro Trains covered by the Rail Operations EA are financial and up to date with their membership fees.  I must stress that if you are not a financial member of the RTBU, you cannot take part in any legal industrial action. If you are unsure whether you are financial, I urge you to call the RTBU on 8630 9100.

Organisers and union officials will be conducting workplace meetings across the network to further update members over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, your bargaining team will continue to negotiate in good faith with the company in an effort to reach a fair agreement.

If you have any queries or questions about the EA, please contact your Organiser or the Union Office on 8630 9100.

Darren Galea
Organiser

For a number of years, the RTBU has been fighting for Shunters to be able to wear shorts while at work.

Many years ago, Shunters had the ability to wear shorts, however it was taken away. Through many years of negotiation and consultation, frustration continued to grow within the membership as this dragged on. V/Line continued to reject the claim for shorts under the pretence of trying to protect workers from skin cancer.

The Shunters along with Delegate Tim Ashcroft and I continued to fight and requested that a Risk Assessment occur. The results of the risk assessment showed that there was minimal risk of a Shunter being harmed by wearing shorts while at work.

There was an overwhelming positive response from the Shunters when this result was communicated, and after many years of fighting managenent, the shorts have now been reinstated.

I would like to thank Delegate Tim Ashcroft and Health and Safety Representative Tom Ruff for all their hard work in getting this done. Without the hard work of Tim, other Delegates and HSRs for the Shunters, this outcome would not have been achieved.

Luba Grigorovitch 
Branch Secretary

This year, RTBU Officials, Members, Delegates, family members and other comrades gathered for two events to commemorate and remember the life of the great Frank Hyett, socialist, militant unionist and inaugural secretary of the Victorian Railways Union from 1911-1919.

Frank Hyett (1882-1919) was a fighter for the working class for his entire life. Entering the workforce aged 13 to support his widowed mother and siblings, he soon became an activist in the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), a radical working class political party which set itself against the whole of the capitalist system and class society and sat to the left of the Labor Party. In 1910, Frank joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Engineers as an Organiser and hit the ground running – his energy, zeal and dedication to the role saw him rise to become the Society’s General Secretary just two months later.

Frank shared the vision of establishing one united, industry-wide railways union to unite all railway workers and collectively advance their wages and conditions and real down the barriers of the smaller craft-based unions which left them divided, weakened and at the mercy of employers.

Frank’s ambition came to fruition in July 1911, when an overwhelming majority of organised railway workers voted by plebiscite to amalgamate into one Victorian Railways Union. The VRU prefigured the Australian Railways Union formed in 1920 and with Frank assuming the VRU’s secretaryship, Victorian general railway workers made huge strides advancing their rates, conditions and standing on the job. This was no easy feat as it was then illegal for railwaymen as public servants to strike.

With the coming of World War I in 1914 and the attempts by the treacherous government of Billy Hughes to impose conscription for Australia’s armed forces, Frank threw himself into the labour movement’s struggle against conscription. He served on the Victorian Trades Hall Council’s Anti-Conscription Committee and contributed much to the triumphant defeat of both referenda to introduce conscription in 1916 and 1917.

Frank Hyett tragically died on April 25^th, 1919, struck down by the pandemic of the Spanish influenza, aged only 37. He was survived by his wife and fellow Socialist, Ethel and their three children. His funeral procession from Melbourne to Box Hill Cemetery was flanked and attended by thousands, and when the train carrying his coffin arrived at Box Hill the local cricket team playing on the green paused their match in silence.

Frank had been a champion footballer and cricket player, rising to a first league cricketer on the Victorian Cricket League at the time of his death. Such was the way working class people and their leaders enriched their communities in all walks of civic life. Frank is also notable for his close friendship with John Curtin, then a fellow VSP activist and anti-conscriptionist fighter who would become Australia’s wartime Labor Prime Minister during World War II. Hyett was perhaps Curtin’s closest male friend of his lifetime, and his death left him utterly devastated.

On Wednesday 24 April 2019 at Box Hill Cemetery, comrades gathered to lay a wreath at the grave of Frank Hyett. The RTBU has revived Frank’s memorial at Box Hill Cemetery and is proud to see it returned to its former glory 100 years later. 

We have also created an award in honour of Frank Hyett which will be awarded annually to one recipient who has made an outstanding and meritorious contribution to our collective. An RTBU member who has time and time again shown their dedication to the Union through hard work, persistence, comradery and leadership.

The first recipient of this award was Adam McGrath. Adam is the Delegate for Pacific National (PN) Melbourne Freight Terminal and was instrumental in the negotiations for PNs Enterprise Agreement (EA) which is a National Agreement covering freight terminals across the country.

Adam is hard working, staunch and dedicated to the cause, travelling across the entire country for the EA Vote No campaign when a shonky deal was offered to the members by PN. In a difficult and toxic company, Adam has excelled as Delegate and through his and many other Delegates and Officials hard work, a 90% vote against the proposed agreement was achieved.

I was proud to present Adam with the award on Thursday 2 May and I look forward to continuing to support Adam fighting the good fight.

Further, in paying our respects to Frank Hyett’s life and struggle, the RTBU and our members must always reaffirm its’ significance: a faith of action in the working class and its ability to organise and fight for its rights and dignity, and a belief in the cause of socialism, peace and solidarity as the working people’s rightful rewards. In an Australia and world more beset by social inequality, exploitation, injustice and war than ever before, the lessons of Frank Hyett are all the more salutary.

Frank Hyett, your memory lived on.

Bryan Evans
Organiser – Rollingstock, Infrastructure & Labour Hire

Organising is not always a clear-cut affair. It is an Organisers job to consult with, and represent the views of the membership, to park one’s own personal view of the situation, listen to members, refine often differing opinions, and relay that message back to management.

This can present some interesting challenges from time to time. For example when you’re sitting at the bargaining table and management make an offer regarding a replacement agreement, and that offer makes every inch of your being want to wretch and expel its breakfast across the table that you happen to be bargaining at. In this instance, one must pause, breathe, and take that offer back to the members. Funnily enough, that is exactly what I experienced at the bargaining meeting for the Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) Rollingstock Agreement held on Friday 17 May.

Now just because we cannot act on our own opinions alone, doesn’t stop us from having one, and I personally couldn’t resist the opportunity to relay my personal view on MTM’s latest offer.

In terms of background to date, both MTM and the Unions (RTBU, ETU & AMWU) have spent the bulk of the time discussing and explaining our various claims and the reasoning for them. It has been no secret that the RTBU’s priority this agreement has been job security, skills and clauses that enable members to affect the outcomes of modernisation and recent investment in the railways.

So far some of these discussions seemed to resonate with both parties and potential clauses to cater for them explored. This screamed to a relatively sudden halt at the last meeting, when MTM out of left field decided quite suddenly that it was time to put the below offer on the table.

MTM’s proposes that if you agree to these conditions:

• Limit Salary maintenance for a three-month period (currently indefinite)
• Amend Schedule D (the roster change clause) so that MTM have the ability to proceed with a roster change without seeking agreement, by providing 28 days’ notice and as compensation, MTM would make a once off payment to the value of wages lost over the following three-month period (currently by agreement)

MTM will offer:

• 2% a year over a 4 year agreement, and;
• Increase the amount reimbursed for prescription safety glasses to $400.

Currently, if MTM were to propose that a classification or grade were to be made redundant and that grade were redeployed to lower paying duties to maintain employment, the member would retain their current classification on an ongoing basis. In other words, you won’t be disadvantaged by the change.

MTM’s proposed change however, seeking that a limit of three months be imposed on this condition during a time of enormous modernisation, change and investment, where a skills pathway or plan has not been agreed but remains under heavy debate with the Unions, indicates that MTM stand to gain enormously from exploiting members whom they perceive as vulnerable to projected changes.

This compounds with MTM’s desire to change your rosters as they see fit while offering a substandard pay rise. It is my view that one does not need to be a clairvoyant to understand what MTM’s intention is here. However, a “trustworthy” source has reassured the unions that this claim and MTM’s roster change proposal are in no way connected.

Perhaps they are simply hoping that the bulk of members have questionable eyesight and that as a consequence the proposed increase to the reimbursement of prescription safety glasses will receive rave reviews.

Regardless of my personal view, the offer must be discussed with the membership. In order to do so, there is a meeting of Delegates from all unions being held on Wednesday 29 May. Please forward your opinion to your respective Delegate prior to the meeting so it can be taken into account.

Members must stand shoulder to shoulder this EA. This is not the time for division or petty squabbling. United we stand, United we will win.