Railway Strikes in New South Wales and Sydney: Issues and Implications

Running head: ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Advanced Studies in Industrial Relations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Executive summary
The aim of the following report is to find out the relevant issues regarding the railway strikes that
took place in the New South Wales and Sydney region in the month of January in 2018. The
problems have been identified in this regard. The various problems that the railway employees
had been facing and their various issues have been discussed here in this paper. The role of the
railway, Tram and Bus Union in New South Wales and Sydney has been evaluated properly. The
railway management has been very much enraged over this matter since they wanted to focus on
the customers first. The priority should be given on those customers who had been standing on
the queue for long times. The differences of the opinions regarding the strike and their basi
viewpoints have been highlighted. One of the most important issues that have been found out is
that of the staff shortage. These issues and their implications on the society have been seen with
the proper focus. This will surely help to improve the scenario indeed.

2ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
The overview of the incident...........................................................................................................3
The effects of the strike on the daily commuters.............................................................................4
The outcome of the situation...........................................................................................................5
The interference of the higher management....................................................................................6
The stance of the government and RTBU.......................................................................................7
The rift between the minister and RTBU secretary.........................................................................8
The negative impact on the minds of the commuters......................................................................9
The disruption of the train services in the region..........................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

3ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Introduction
The following paper discusses upon the various relevant issues in the contemporary trade
relations background. The role of the trade unions has been very much important because they
have showed their intent in the matter of interfering into the decisions of the government and
private organizations. The trade unions also have played a major role in the rail strike that took
place in the month of January in 2018. The agenda was pretty clear and the workers were very
angry in this matter. The irrelevant clauses in the agreements had resulted in the strikes and the
major parties had been involved in this. There was no other way left for the trade unions but to
call the strike as their rights had been badly hampered in the due course. The impact of this strike
was definitely heavy on the communities but this was the only way to shout and protest against
the railway administration within the country (Bowden, 2009). The life of the passengers had
been very badly halted because of the train strike. In this paper, the root cause of the strikes and
the other inherent issues would be discussed. This indeed will be very much vital for the further
research into this matter.
The overview of the incident
The role of the trade unions has always been a very important aspect in the different
organizations in Australia. In some cases, the workplace process is completely dominated by the
trade unions. The incident will be discussed in this section. In the month of January this year, the
Railway workers had become tremendously outraged due to different issues in their workplace
procedures. The outrage was seen mainly in the regions of New South Wales and Sydney. It was
very much evident that the railway workers had decided to go for strikes for a number of times
because of several reasons (Bramble, 2008). These reasons had caused serious havocs in the