NSW: Premier blames union for bus strike

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2009
NSW: Premier blames union for bus strike

SYDNEY, Dec 19 AAP - NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has kicked off her 41st birthday
celebrations by again defending the actions of the government over a bus driver strike
that gripped Sydney and Newcastle.

The mother-of-two, in office for just over two weeks, on Saturday lambasted unions
for refusing to negotiate in the lead-up to Friday's 24-hour driver strike which left
an estimated 600,000 commuters without their usual form of transport.

Drivers stopped work as part of their campaign to secure a pay increase without the
loss of conditions.

Late on Friday, the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) ordered drivers back to work
in a decision welcomed by Ms Keneally, who said unions could have avoided the strike.

"The government worked all throughout Thursday to avert that bus strike," Ms Keneally
told reporters on Saturday in Sydney.

"The government put on the table a very fair and a very generous offer - six per cent
over two years. In these tough economic times ... a six per cent pay rise over two years
was a very fair and a very generous offer.

"Now the union, on Thursday, asked us to put the offer on the table. We did. They asked
me to publicly confirm that. I did. And yet the union executive still decided to go to
a snap strike without putting that offer to their members," she said.

"I think that decision let down the public, it let down their membership."

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Friday said there has been a 150 per cent
increase in the number of strikes since the government came to power in 2007.

But, Ms Keneally skirted the issue when asked about speculated state and federal government
failure to stand up against unions.

"The government ... was at the IRC at nine o'clock on Thursday night. Unions NSW was
there at nine o'clock on Thursday night. It's the union - the Rail, Train and Bus Union
- that wasn't answering their phone and didn't turn up on Thursday night," she said.

Bus drivers returned to work on Saturday, with negotiations over conditions expected
to continue in the IRC.

IRC president, Justice Roger Boland recommended both parties continue to negotiate
the outstanding issues of the enterprise bargaining agreement, which expired in July.

Rail Tram and Bus Union (RBTU) spokesman Raul Baonza said he would take the wage offer
to the union executive on Monday and put it to the members during the first week of January.

The union and the State Transit Authority (STA) are due back in the IRC on January
13 to report their progress and must complete negotiations by February 26 or possibly
face binding arbitration.

When asked by reporters how she planned to celebrate her birthday, the premier said
she had an official engagement in her electorate before heading this evening to the annual
Carols in the Domain concert.

She also received a bouquet of native flowers from her parents in the United States, she said.

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KEYWORD: BUSES (PIX AVAILABLE)

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