By Graham Matthews
BRISBANE — Around 1500 public transport workers, from Queensland Rail and City Council buses, rallied at Roma Street forum for a joint stop-work meeting on September 2. Workers were angry at plans by the Borbidge government to privatise sections of public transport services, attack access to common law for workers' compensation and remove paid rates awards.
Under the guise of the Fitzgerald Audit Report, the National-Liberal Coalition state government is attempting to break up Queensland Rail and contract out the most profitable parts of the service. "The government sees public transport as a cash cow ripe for the milking", AFULE state secretary Paul Sorenson told the rally.
Between 1989 and 1995, the Goss Labor government cut more than 4000 jobs from Queensland Rail. Labor also corporatised the rail system, splitting it into separate business groups, ready for privatisation.
The Coalition government's plans involve cutting a further 1500 jobs by 1999, restricting services to peak hour only and permitting the building of private rail links from the city to the airport and the Sunshine Coast.
The Borbidge government also intends to split up the currently integrated Brisbane bus system, offering each component for contract, and forcing drivers to tender against private companies for their jobs.
ACTU Queensland secretary John Thompson addressed the rally about the government's plans to restrict workers' access to compensation. Under new plans to reduce costs for government and employers, workers with less than 15% work-related disability will no longer be able to sue their employers.
PTU state secretary Les Croft told the rally of the Borbidge government's plans to introduce legislation that mirrors the Howard government's attacks on workers' right to organise. Existing paid rates awards would be abolished, replaced by minimum rates awards, seriously threatening the wages and conditions of state government employees.
Notable by their absence from the rally were any Queensland Labor MPs. "The rank and file have turned on the ALP. They blame the ALP for preparing the way for the attacks the Coalition is bringing in now", Green Left was told by a PTU activist at the rally. "They daren't show their faces."
Workers at the rally unanimously endorsed an ACTU Queensland resolution demanding that the state government reject the Fitzgerald Audit Report, and all plans to contract out or privatise services that the report recommended. Workers also authorised public transport unions to cooperate in a campaign of bans and stoppages against the government's plans.