NSW protests against public sector cuts

Railway workers, bus drivers, nurses, teachers, disability workers, 
Sydney Water employees and others have taken action against cuts to the 
public sector by the State Government.

The build-up in actions preceded the ALP State Conference last weekend, 
where the Carr Labor Government's support for piece-meal privatisation, by 
such means as competitive tendering, came in for considerable criticism 
from the left wing of the Party.

However, former, right-wing Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating received a 
standing ovation for a speech in which he claimed credit on behalf of the 
ALP for adding a new word, "competition", to the labour movement's 
vocabulary.

Railway workers took strike action the Friday before last and again last 
Wednesday against staff cuts which leave more stations dirty, unmanned and 
unsafe.

A mass meeting of rail workers on Wednesday last week rejected the Customer 
Service Management (CSM) proposal which is aimed at cutting staff and 
increasing workloads in readiness for further privatisation of the 
railways.

The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) said, "Enough was enough for the railway 
workers who have continually endured [Enterprise] Agreement after Agreement 
with lesser and lesser staff; additional disciplinary conditions with 
management `holding the whip hand'; more workload and reduction of Award 
conditions".

Last Friday, Sydney's bus drivers took four-hour strike action (off peak) 
in opposition to a log of claims that management has made against the union 
— a "cute" reversal of roles in a ploy to slash pay and conditions.

Also last Wednesday, nurses at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital held a stopwork 
meeting and staff of Sydney Water held a rally against cuts.

Nurses are opposing the hospital's plans to cut beds and staff in its bid 
to meet a slimmer budget.

The unwillingness of the Carr Government to allocate proper funding to 
health (and other areas of the public sector) is causing increasing 
frustration among traditional Labor supporters.

Many public sector workers are finding Carr's policy of wage restraint, 
massive job reductions, tighter and tighter budgets and his support for the 
private sector is just too hard to swallow.

Carr defended his Government, saying "We are running a strong public 
sector, but we have got to run it with proper attention to giving taxpayers 
and consumers value for money".

Nurses at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital told Carr what his "value for 
money" means in reality: fully privatising the hospital's assisted 
fertility clinic and cutting the number of midwives on duty in the labour 
wards from five a shift to four.

With the ALP Conference over, and no promises of real change in policy, the 
anger and concern of public sector workers remains.

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