Re: Opal machines to be turned off on Sydney buses amid industrial dispute
  TP

The different unions are a legacy of past times when the various public
transport sectors were completely independent and uncoordinated. Private
buses were administered by the old Department of Motor Transport,
government buses by the Department of Road Transport and Tramways, later
DGT. The RTBU is a legacy of the railways and tramways, thus a government
employees union that is skilled in the art of squeezing extra benefits out
of politicians who are terrified by the idea of strikes costing votes.
Private bus operators, on the other hand, traditionally didn't tolerate bs.
It's only in very recent times that the two sectors have been brought
together. The unions are a legacy of the old system. The situation in NSW
has brought the TWU and RTBU together in a united front. Other states and
territories, except Brisbane City Council in Queensland, have only the TWU
looking after bus drivers. The average private company has a dim view of
any attempt to bring public service perks into their workplace as they
don't have a bottomless well of taxpayer funding to draw upon. Yes, there
should be common working conditions, but the private sector (with margins
as tight as they are in public transport operational contracts) can't
afford the inefficient lavishing that the public sector tolerates. Tensions
result.

Tony P

On Tuesday, 23 November 2021 at 07:49:55 UTC+11 Matthew Geier wrote:

> I gather the main dispute here is the 'legacy' RBTU members at the Transit

> Systems depots have kept their STA perks and conditions when the depots

> were 'privatised', but the TWU workers doing the same job for the same

> company have worse terms and conditions. And presumably, new hires at the

> former STA depots are on TWU contract conditions, not RBTU contract

> conditions.

>

> Just where did this situation where 'private' company drivers came to be

> represented by a different union than 'government' drivers come from?

>

> A number of years ago, where I work two unions claimed the right to

> represent people in my type of position, and the pair of them fought it out

> in the courts for well over a year for 'exclusive' access before the ruling

> came down that the workers could choose. Queue being bombarded with letters

> claiming to better represent my interests. However, in my case, it doesn't

> matter what union you are a member of (or not at all) everyone in the

> job/grade gets exactly the same contract conditions.

>

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