Luba Grigorovitch
Branch Secretary

The Alstom Ballarat Rail Workshops has been an integral part of the regional Ballarat community for over 100 years now and employs around 70 local workers at the site.

For those of you that don’t know, the Alstom Ballarat workshops have been building and maintaining trains in Ballarat for over 100 years, having delivered more than 600 X’Trapolis rail cars in recent years. Unfortunately, lack of work and inaction from the Andrews’ Labor Government threatens the closure of the workshops.

The Andrews’ Labor Government has the power to change this by committing that the new order of X’Trapolis trains be built in Ballarat at the Alstom workshops, however the Government has remained cowardly in this indecision.

Part of Labor’s platform prior to the 2014 election was around job security, not just ad-hock work and it is disappointing that 5 years later, under a Labor Government, Alstom are close to shutting the gates.

The X’Trapolis 2.0 project will guarantee that Alstom Ballarat manufactures up to 40 new X’Trapolis trains with passenger capacity of 1200 passengers. This would see the future of the Alstom Ballarat workshop secured until at least 2023, giving the workers better job security and assurance.

Not only will X’Trapolis 2.0 give certainty to Alstom Ballarat, but it will also secure jobs at the Metro Trains Craigieburn maintenance facility beyond 2020. This is a huge investment in Rail in Victoria, and we need to ensure that these jobs are retained.

On Wednesday 28 August, a rally was held at the Ballarat workshops in support of the workers, and to put pressure on the Victorian Government to commit to these trains being built in Victoria at Ballarat workshops.

While the weather in Ballarat certainly didn’t show up for us that day, the local community did, and you could see just how important this is to the community in Ballarat.

At that meeting, workers, Delegates, Members, Union Officials and supporters, passed the below motion unanimously:

“That Premier Daniel Andrews seek an immediate meeting with the Combined Union Shop Committee at ALSTOM (AMWU, ETU and RTBU) Delegates to discuss the future of the North Workshop ALSTOM past May 2020.

That the Premier deliver on his promise made on several visits to the ALSTOM site in 2014 and 2018 – that the ALSTOM workshops would never close under his government.”

The motion has since been communicated with Premier Andrews and no response has been received. I have also written to the Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Public Transport twice, urging them to take action and protect these regional rail jobs.

We are yet to receive a response to either letter.

Keeping jobs in Victoria and retaining a skilled workforce must be a priority for the State Government. Trains built by Victorians, for Victorians, is the way that it should be.

Bryan Evans
Organiser

Metro Infrastructure

Following several mass meetings held on Monday the 12 August, the RTBU is pleased to announce that members have endorsed an in-principle agreement for the Metro Infrastructure EA 2019. In a departure from tradition, the infrastructure agreement has been completed relatively on time and is scheduled to proceed to a formal vote over the coming weeks.

For this EA, the RTBU set out to continue our work creating secure employment in the rail industry, to close loopholes exploited by Metro over the life of current agreement and deliver a fair pay rise.

This has largely been accomplished by placing further restrictions as to when a member can be stood down, greater control over the implementation of new rosters, greater control over the use of supplementary labour, a solid commitment to insourcing over the life of the agreement, the establishment of a safe working committee, an additional 36 full-time jobs and a 14% pay rise with a 2% sign on bonus.

I thank the hard work of the Delegates and the bargaining team in delivering the proposed agreement.

Metro Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock negotiations have largely been bogged down in exactly how best to deal with what will ultimately be an upcoming period of vast change across rolling stock maintenance. With the company pushing for network wide roster changes, the impacts of HCMT, the Comeng retirement and the need to modernise skill sets to deal with modern fleets, this EA is one of the more complex negotiations in this major EA round.

The RTBU firmly holds the view that any solution to these issues designed and endorsed by the members is going to be vastly superior to any the company intends to jam down our throat, and this EA is the time to deal with it.

V/Line Infrastructure

To date, there have been two bargaining meetings for the V/Line Infrastructure 2019 EA, so in the grand scheme of things, its very early days. V/Line’s main focus this agreement appears to be its claims relating to rostering flexibility.

V/Line’s explanation would indicate this claim is designed for the transition of work from days to nights on what we assume is the busier corridors of the regional network which has seen, and will continue to see increased services.

The RTBU has requested further information regarding this claim and expect to have more information after the next bargaining meeting on Friday 30 August.

Joe Dennis & Darren Galea
Organisers

Negotiations for the V/Line Rail Operations Enterprise Agreement have officially begun with the Log of Claims (LOC) for both the RTBU and V/Line being exchanged at the first meeting.

At a recent meeting of all V/Line Operations Delegates, further discussion occurred around the LOC and how bargaining will proceed from here onwards. There has now been two bargaining meetings and the next meeting will take place on Thursday 29 August 2019.

 

Luba Grigorovitch
Branch Secretary

RTBU EAs are in full swing with ground being broken. As members are aware, the RTBU notified Metro of work bans on the week of 12 August. Metro members in operational grades whipped into action. In light of mounting pressure, Metro threatened to dock members’ pay but this only further incited hard working members as Metro’s heavy hand likely overstepped the mark.

The RTBU has sought legal advice on the docking of pay for minor work bans. Should Metro seek to dock members’ pay in future instances of Protected Industrial Action, the RTBU will commence legal proceedings to challenge their attacks.

Eager to block members’ attempts to take action, Metro moved to have some of your actions blocked through a court injunction.

Metro claimed that leaving barriers open was not a form of industrial action as it was not part of ordinary duties and as a result would not be ‘protected’ under the legislation. Further, they claimed that misleading statements had been made about how you were going to take some forms of industrial action. The RTBU told the court that the union had never said that there would be “free travel days” and that the media had done what they do best in sensationalising anything they can get their hands on.

No wonder workers across Australia have continued to grow disillusioned by the industrial relations system! In a matter of hours, the Federal Court awarded Metro with an injunction against planned action of open barriers and issued a court order and the RTBU invested considerable time and effort to ensure compliance. This is 2019 Australia. The rules indeed need to be changed!

With all other forms of industrial action on the table for the week to come, the RTBU responded to Metro’s threats to dock members’ pay by notifying a 4-hour stoppage scheduled for Tuesday 27 August. Metro’s little win in the courts did little to curb members’ momentum.

The culmination of threatened industrial action, court battles, and Metro’s general confusion, the weekend saw Metro return to the bargaining table looking to put talks back on track, seeking to restore faith in their approach to bargaining.

Following lengthy discussions amongst Officials and key Delegates, the RTBU made the call to capitalise on the opportunity to advance claims and withdrew looming work bans to enter intensive negotiations. These negotiations have proven to be beneficial, and although we are yet to reach an agreement, these talks have proved generally positive, the RTBU continues to push forward and ensure claims are taken seriously.

I have heard from many Members just how keen you are to take protected action if a fair deal isn’t forthcoming. Members should know that the period in which Metro members can take protected industrial action presently expires on 28 August. Consequently, Marc Marotta and I have applied to the Fair Work Commission to have our right to take protected action extended by another 30 days.

Although we called off the original stoppage, please be under no illusion that one might not happen. The RTBU is prepared to play the long game.

The RTBU will refuse to sign off on a deal that could compromise the safety and working conditions of members.

Members deserve to be respected at work, and the RTBU will demand it.

Darren Galea
Organiser

For some time now, there have been ongoing issues with rough riding on the V/Line network. The RTBU has received reports for over 110 rough riding incidents that have occurred in the North East region alone and there are over 100 other reports of incidents that have occurred across the other regions in V/Line.

This is not okay and our members should not be put at such risk for simply doing their job.

At Albury Station for example, out of the eight staff members that work there, three of them are either on light duties or off on a WorkCover claim due to injuries sustained from rough riding. There is also the potential for many other injuries to have occurred, however due to the forward thinking of many V/Line staff members, they continuously brace themselves when they are travelling over a particular section of track that they are aware is particularly rough.

It is clear that the rough riding is occurring because the network is not being maintained to the standards that it should be. This is unacceptable!

The RTBU has written to the CEO of V/Line James Pinder to raise this as an issue and he has written back to us advising that the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is responsible for the maintenance of the interstate network which includes the North East region. Mr Pinder advised that V/Line have now requested targeted maintenance to occur on the network.

While this is a step in the right direction, the RTBU will continue to put pressure on V/Line and the relevant authorities to ensure that the network is maintained correctly, and our members are not injured any further.