Auckland Rail Workers Shelve Pre-Christmas Strike Plans

Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) members working for French owned multinational Transdev have postponed potential pre-Christmas industrial action on Auckland’s passenger rail network after a membership meeting held today.

Auckland’s passenger trains were halted on Friday 8th December when RMTU members went on strike over safety concerns relating to the proposed introduction of drive only trains.

“Our members met today and agreed there will be no strike action on Auckland passenger trains this side of Christmas: it’s not our intention to inconvenience the travelling public who have been so supportive of our members and their fight to keep the railway safe,” said RMTU Organiser John Kerr.

“The fundamental sticking point in collective bargaining with Transdev still remains – Transdev and Auckland Transport are still proposing to move to driver only trains and our members remain implacably opposed to that on safety grounds,” he said.

“We’re not ruling out further industrial action in the New Year but for now we need to do further work with Worksafe and the New Zealand Transport Agency and focus on raising public awareness of the safety and security risks presented by Driver Only Operation ” he said.

ENDS

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