By Rupen Savoulian
SYDNEY — Peter Perkins, a delegate from the Sydney sub-branch of the Public Transport Union (PTU), says that enterprise bargaining agreements have laid the basis for the corporatisation of the public transport system in New South Wales.
The moves towards corporatisation have resulted in the NSW rail service being fragmented into several "units", such as City Rail and Country Link. Each unit has its own workers and budget to balance. Workers from one unit cannot join forces with fellow workers in other units and, under sections of the Trade Practices Act, they are prohibited from striking or acting in coordination with them.
In policy and rhetoric, the ACTU opposes privatisation. Perkins told Green Left that in practice, however, the ACTU has done nothing to stop corporatisation, the first step towards privatisation, in the rail industry. "If the ACTU and PTU were serious about opposing privatisation, they would have activated militant worker action 15 or 20 years ago", he said.
Enterprise bargaining, Perkins argues, has put in place the necessary restrictions on workers so that the "corporate restructuring" agenda can be carried out. For example, clauses specifying that workers cannot strike during the bargaining period were included in all enterprise bargaining arrangements in the industry. Banning strikes makes it easier for State Rail Authority management to force workers to accept their conditions.
In NSW, the leadership of the PTU did not defend the public sector workers from attacks initiated by the former ALP federal government, and the Labour Council has simply rubber-stamped privatisation, Perkins said. The state ALP government has categorically refused to defend public sector workers, Premier Carr stating that he does not want a "head-on clash" with the Howard government.
Rail maintenance workshops, such as that previously at Chullora in Sydney's west, were closed down without much protest from the PTU leadership, despite the significant loss of jobs. "Much of the work force that did cleaning on the trains, for example, have gone", said Perkins. Trains are therefore less clean, and the too few staff still employed in cleaning services are grossly underpaid. Security on trains is now provided by the private sector.
Increasingly, State Rail is hiring temporary staff, while permanent workers lose their jobs. Temporary staff do not have the same rights (such as sick leave and annual leave).
Perkins argues for a rank-and-file worker fight back. "Workers in the public transport sector have seen their jobs disappear and their conditions deteriorate. They are angry and critical of the PTU leadership", Perkins said. He commented that while workers are not afraid to confront the right-wing PTU leaders, many do not make the connection between the policy of the PTU and the ALP's agenda.
According to Perkins, his main task as a union delegate is to explain to the workers that the responsibility for their falling living standards and the job cuts lies squarely on the shoulders of the ACTU and the ALP. Under the Howard federal government, Perkins said, the public sector can expect more of the same, adding that it would not surprise him if a rotten deal was made between the ACTU leadership and the Coalition based on permanent "industrial peace" in exchange for a once-off pay increase for low income workers.
Only when public transport workers abandon their illusions in the ALP and the ACTU, and campaign to democratise their union, can opposition to the corporate restructuring agenda in State Rail be successfully maintained, Perkins said.