In breaking news for Sydney commuters, the NSW Rail Union has announced that they will be switching off all Opal reader machines across Sydney’s train stations indefinitely from Thursday, October 20, meaning that Sydneysiders will be able to commute for free.
This move is a product of the sustained industrial action and open-warfare between the rail union and the NSW state government. The NSW rail union had planned to turn off all Opal readers last month, but dropped it following an urgent application lodged by the state government. Now, after 97 per cent of rail workers voted in favour of the shutdown in a week-long ballot, the action has been picked up again, with rail workers now officially confirming that they will be switching Opal machines off from 3pm to 7pm everyday for an "indefinite" period of time.
Rail Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary Alex Claassens confirmed this new strike on Monday, saying in a media statement that this move was designed to cause a "headache" to the state government.
“Everybody is fed up with the ongoing rail dispute, but we’ve no choice but to continue to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to force the NSW Government to provide safe trains to commuters and fair wages and conditions for workers.” He said.
This news comes off the backend of the union’s Fair Work Commission fight with the government over a new pay deal for rail workers that resulted in ongoing disruptions across the Sydney rail network over the last few months. Opal machines will all be completely turned off as a result of this continued battle between the unions and government, with the core of this action the same as it was in September, as seen in Claassens' then statement to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We want to put pressure on the government and senior bureaucrats, not the travelling public," he said.
“We’re making sure that they’re going to be kept open and working the way we want them to work so people don’t have to pay." Claassens added.
This industrial action was called “economic sabotage” by transport minister David Elliot when the union proposed it in September, with him then saying that switching off the machines would cost taxpayers millions in lost fare revenue.