Newcastle Bulletin: member update
As recently communicated, the company has notified of a 4.58% wage reduction for the action of not operating the BDCs.
The RTBU has challenged this figure, and we were in the Fair Work Commission yesterday for conciliation. The Union was pushing for an urgent hearing to try resolve the matter a quickly as possible, but the company was unable to do the same.
The hearing date is for the 2nd of June and we’re due to have our evidence finalised by the end of this week. The RTBU will be pushing for the reduction to be less than the 1.5% we secured with the same action against Transit Systems in Sydney a few years ago. In that case the company tried for 30% and we secured 1.5%. We’re confident that we have a good shot and reducing that number even more.
Today we held online meetings to canvass members and determine our course of action. The negotiating committee recommended that we hold our course until the decision is made around the wage reduction percentage and at all 3 meetings, there was unanimous endorsement of this position.
We are also chasing the company to firm up a date for the next meeting and have written to them several times without getting a response. We’ll continue pushing them to re-engage with meetings.
Remember that the main weapon the company has, is to try and create division among workers. What they say, how they say it, it’s all designed to get you to think the company is a trustworthy and reasonable source of information. Instead of judging them on their spin, we encourage you to judge them on how they have treated workers since the last EA.
The current wage offer of 4/3/3, or whatever is left after roster manipulations reduce your wages by up to 2% each year, is plainly not enough to reflect the responsibility that bus drivers have for the lives of all those around them.
If we stand strong, we WILL win this.