Melbourne PTU fights for wage increase
By Tully Bates
MELBOURNE — "The way the union is fighting by going to the Industrial Relations Commission is not the way to fight." This statement by a tram driver at the Brunswick tram depot after a four-hour stop-work meeting on May 9 reflects workers' growing frustration at the calls for patience and good will by the Public Transport Union (PTU) leadership and the Public Transport Corporation (PTC).
The meeting was part of a campaign of rolling stoppages throughout Melbourne's public transport system aimed at putting pressure on the PTC to accept the decision by the IRC granting employees half of a 6% pay claim.
In October 1993 the union accepted the Transport Reform Agreement (TRA) as part of an enterprise bargain agreement. The TRA, implemented over the following 12 months, cut the public transport deficit by half, saving the PTC $245 million through the loss of 7000 jobs and the trade-off of conditions.
At the time of the agreement the PTC claimed that any savings over the $245 million would fund a pay increase.
In December, the IRC decided that the PTC had made excess savings of $26 million. Management's response, however, was to claim that "Without [further] productivity trade-offs the PTC quite simply does not have the money to cover a wage increase". The PTC has made three appeals against the IRC decision, costing millions of dollars in legal fees. The claim will go back to the court for the third time on May 22.
The stop-work meeting passed a motion resolving to continue the industrial campaign if the wage increase is not granted on May 22.