An open letter to the Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance from the Rail Tram and Bus Union NSW Secretary, Alex Claassens

In yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Minister Constance attacked the RTBU and the Union movement for defending Australian jobs and fighting for fairer wages.

Constance said that we should “take some responsibility for pricing Australia out of the market because of the union featherbedding and practices that have made our industries uncompetitive around the world.”

Does Constance not know that even the Reserve Bank of Australia has declared low wage growth a key economic problem! Wages here in Australia are struggling, meanwhile Constance is out there trying to justify why we should ship our jobs offshore!

Shame on Constance!

This comes from a Minister who continues to privatise our public transport and sell it off to foreign companies, and builds trains in South Korea instead of here in Australia.

Read the open letter from RTBU NSW Secretary, Alex Claassens.

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In response to the opinion piece by Andrew Constance published in the Daily Telegraph on 1/8/18 “Transport Minister Andrew Constance says government must strike a balance with offshore jobs”

The Transport Minster, Andrew Constance, enjoys a fat salary paid for by NSW taxpayers and yet he is attacking railway workers for standing together with their union for fair pay and conditions.

In yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Minister Constance criticised me for doing my job of representing railway workers so that they can be paid properly for the important job they do – transporting commuters safely around our state.

Under Minister Constance, conditions for railway workers got so bad that Sydney Trains were forcing workers to work overtime just to keep the system running.

Under Minister Constance, the people of NSW are paying the price for his failing privatisation schemes and incompetent timetabling.

In the same opinion piece, the Minister criticised the union movement more broadly for standing up against jobs being sent offshore.

It’s outrageous that a politician elected by Australians to act for Australians is so blatantly arguing against their interests.

We need to create and keep jobs here in Australia, so that taxpayer money can go back into our community.

Minister Constance clearly needs to get out more and talk to some actual people on the street about how hard it is to find a job, especially one that pays enough to cover the mounting cost of living.

Alex Claassens,

RTBU NSW Secretary