Sydney dodges train chaos, so far deadlocked union negotiations set to continue

Sydney commuters can breathe a sigh of relief about a massive train strike being averted, but hospitality businesses will still take a financial hit and the prospect of the same huge industrial action happening in two weeks still lingers.

Sydney CBD restaurants and cafes had already jettisoned stock orders, and music and sport fans had already gone through the rigmarole of sorting alternative travel to a host of events.

The Premier, key ministers, bureaucrats and representatives of five unions sat down on Thursday afternoon and managed to avoid what would have been one of the most disruptive industrial actions in NSW for decades.

Sydney Trains drivers and staff were set to walk off the job 4.15am Friday until Sunday morning, disrupting well over one million passengers.

The state government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union will now try and work out a new enterprise agreement concerning pay and working hours over the next fortnight.

But the industrial disputes have been unresolved through some 50 bargaining meetings over the last six months and 28 meetings in the “big bargaining room” with 90 union delegates, the Transport Minister said this week.

Every match of the women’s and men’s A-League is being played in Sydney this weekend, offering 12 fixtures for football fans.

Socceroos icon and Western United men’s coach John Aloisi said the economic benefit was sizeable.

“That’s a massive relief (the strike is off) because we know how important they (the trains) are and important to get to the games,” he told ABC on Friday morning.

“If you don’t have that going, the crowds would have been a lot less than what they might be.

“So it’s a big relief for us involved in the game and hopefully we get big crowds at all the games.”

Announcing the eleventh-hour ceasefire on Thursday, Premier Chris Minns said the government had agreed to one of the unions’ key demands to run trains for 24 hours on the weekend.

The interim agreement would be effective for the next two weeks while “intensive bargaining” began to finalise the enterprise agreement that has been under negotiation for months.

“We believe that there’s enough good faith in the room to get that agreement in a short space of time, and the government and the unions have committed to that,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that the two weeks of intensive bargaining reaps an agreement.”

RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes said he also “confident that we will reach a deal”.

“We’re going to sit down in a room, sit with Treasury, the ones who make the decision about where money is allocated,” he said.

The union’s central demand was a 32 per cent pay rise over four years, plus 24-hour train services which it argues are better for commuters.

“We’re going to figure out whether there is a point in time when we can get to an agreement,” Mr Warnes said.

The union boss thanked Mr Minns to agreeing to a 24-service which will run this weekend.

Mr Warnes said while there had been no movement on pay, he expected a deal could be reached.

“We’ve given the Premier a commitment that trains will continue to run as timetabled and as normal for at least the period of negotiation that we’ve agreed to,” he said outside parliament.’

“Hopefully, we’re done by the time the two weeks is up and everything can go back to normal.”

Transport Minister Jo Haylen apologised to commuters for the days of confusion over the planned disruption.

“We apologise for the uncertainty that this presented for passengers across the weekend and that people have had to make alternative arrangements,” Ms Haylen said.

The Premier said he was “confident” both sides would go into bargaining with “good faith”.

“Hopefully we’ll have more to announce about an agreement with the combined rail unions in the coming days,” Mr Minns said.

Mr Minns said he had agreed “to run as many 24-hour train services this coming weekend as possible”.

“We are working with (Transport for NSW) to ensure that crew operations are in place and are available to do that,” he said.

“So they will be available, some tonight, many tomorrow night, and most the night after that.”

BUSINESS WARNING OF DISASTER

Earlier, advocacy group Business NSW said the Rail, Tram and Bus Union strike could cost the state $50.7m.

Business NSW chief executive Daniel Hunter, Business Western Sydney director David Borger and Business Sydney director Paul Nicolaou co-signed a statement calling the protected industrial action “economic sabotage”.

“The ripple effect of the irresponsible and damaging train strike action will cost jobs, hurt essential services and is a kick in the guts for hardworking businesses,” they say.

“White-collar workers have the advantage of being able to work remotely.

“However, many of the 415,000 people employed in the retail sector and 306,000 people employed in the hospitality sector won’t be able to perform their duties remotely.

“Christmas and Black Friday trade is a make-or-break period for business, yet hundreds of business owners have already been flooded with cancellations and will be hit by lost foot traffic.”

If the Sydney Trains strike went ahead from 4.15am on Friday till Sunday morning, people would not be able to get a host of concerts, matches and performances by rail.

Ticketholders for Pearl Jam, all 12 A-League Women and men’s games, the theatre juggernaut Hamilton, the Nepal Festival at Darling Harbour and a James Blunt concert are all affected.

The Business NSW bosses say hospitality will take an immediate hit on Friday.

“Members say that regardless of the outcome from the talks between the NSW government and the union, employees are to work from home on Friday.

“This will have a big impact on cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs and retail.”

COMMUTER FRUSTRATION

Urgent repair jobs only added to commuter frustration.

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland did not downplay the mess Sydney faced if union delegates and the government did not strike a deal on Thursday.

“We’re asking passengers across Sydney to plan for the worst if trains aren’t operating tomorrow,” he told the ABC on Thursday morning.

“A million people each day rely on our services across Sydney and industrial action of this scale would be very, very inconvenient.

“Avoid any unnecessary travel. Roads will be very busy. Other public transport modes will be busy. It will be a very difficult period for commuters.”

Buses, ferries and light rail services were all planned to continue as usual, with some extra services to be made available.

The Metro was always projected to run as normal on Friday but will be shut for unrelated maintenance on Saturday and Sunday.

The Metro line will be operating between Tallawong and Chatswood but not from the new section between Chatswood and Sydenham through the CBD as a result.

Exacerbating the transport headaches, the number of Metro trains on the M1 line was cut on Thursday morning because of overhead wiring repairs.

Pictures showed the Cherrybrook and Epping Metro platforms were chock-a-block on Thursday morning. A limited number of buses ran people between the two stations.

“Absolute chaos at Cherrybrook. We’ve been waiting 10 minutes and had to change platforms twice and now we’re told we have to change again at Epping,” one commuter told The Daily Telegraph.

There were other issues across the city area Thursday morning, jamming up the network as well.

An urgent train repair at Bondi Junction backed up trains on the T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line for a time.

Services heading from Sydney’s west and northwest are also delayed because of earlier urgent track repairs between Springwood and Lithgow.

EARLIER HOPE FOR NEGOTIATIONS

Despite all the delays, Mr Longland seemed mildly optimistic a crisis could be averted.

Asked if the department boss was hopeful of a breakthrough in union negotiations, Mr Longland said on Thursday: “We have had discussions through the day yesterday.

“And we’ll be in further discussions today with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, and the four other rail unions that represent our workers.

“We are hopeful of a breakthrough and we’re obviously planning for a normal timetable tomorrow.

“If these talks are successful, trains will operate a normal timetable across Sydney on Friday and again on Saturday.

“But we are asking passengers to plan ahead, to keep updated with the latest information. It is a rapidly moving situation.”

Negotiations with the RTBU and four additional unions were tough, Mr Longland said.

“It’s a complex process, the negotiations have been under way for a number of months across five different unions.

“It’s a complex agreement … We’re hoping that we can avoid the industrial action because we know the consequences.”

Despite the government scrambling to fill whatever gaps possible, commuters were warned to avoid any travel if they could, with the continuing services and roads expected to be heavily congested.

“Prepare to make alternative arrangements,” Transport Minister Jo Haylen said on Wednesday.

“If you can, change your working arrangements, that would be best.

“We want to make sure that people can get where they need to go, and we know that there is going to be significant pressure on the alternative transport options, the limited alternative transport options that are available as well, of course, as our road network.”

Ms Haylen ruled out taking the union to court in a bid to stop the strike action.

“Right now our focus is having these conversations, negotiating in good faith and resolving this agreement as quickly as possible. We know that’s the best path,” the Transport Minister said.

“Of course, government will keep its options open, but right now, our focus is to bring this together, not to take court action and to drive it apart.”