Metro v RTBU: War of words over planned train strike

UPDATE: Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan says the government strongly believes Melbourne’s train strikes are ‘unnecessary’.

Commuters have been caught in the middle bracing for public transport chaos as Metro and the train drivers union fired off over planned two-day strikes.

‘The opportunity to continue down that path of negotiation to get the best possible outcome for the workplace has been abandoned in place of a strategy that’s all about punishing passengers,’ she told Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

Details of Melbourne’s train strikes:

• Thursday – 3am-4am, some early morning services to be cancelled – Details here
• Friday – 10am-2pm, services expected to be affected from 8.30am-4.30pm
• Saturday – 2am-6am – early morning services to be affected

Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Luba Grigorovitch accused Metro of ‘crap’ tactics on 3AW Mornings.

‘The stoppage is from 2am-4am (tomorrow) to think they are saying there are going to be all these cancellations is just simply crap,’ she told Neil Mitchell.

‘I make no apology that the RTBU will continue to fight changes that Metro are trying to sneak through.’

Read more: Two-day train strike

LISTEN: Union takes Metro to task over planned strike action

But Metro CEO Andrew Lezala retorted the union’s claims tomorrow’s cancellations are unnecessary.

He said Melburnians would be disrupted by Friday’s strike action, even if the union accepted a last minute pay offer.

‘As we sit today Neil there’s nothing we can do to avoid it,’ he said.

‘The union knows what they doing, they have picked their timings they are going to disrupt this city significantly on Friday.

‘I do apologise for those who will be affected.’

LISTEN: Metro retorts union claims cancellations tomorrow are avoidable