Karl Stefanovic has unleashed a scathing tirade against the rail union boss after hundreds of trains were cancelled and more delayed, throwing Sydney transport into chaos.
Across Sydney, an estimated 1,500 rail services – about 40 per cent – were cancelled or significantly delayed during peak hour on Wednesday morning.
Only 16 per cent of morning services were on-time or within five minutes of their scheduled departures, which wreaked havoc for morning commuters as more than 80 per cent of services were cancelled or running up to six hours late.
The Electrical Trades Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s 350 ongoing work bans were a result of their planned industrial action.
Dozens of trains have yet again been cancelled and delayed on Thursday as the unions and the state government failed to reach an agreement in their long-standing pay dispute.
The RTBU also launched 10 fresh actions and has remained firm in its demands for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years for its members.
Stefanovic spoke to RTBU secretary Toby Warnes on Thursday morning and slammed the industrial action.
The Today show host asked the union boss how he felt knowing he ‘had lost the people’ following Wednesday’s work bans.
Today host Carl Stefanovic has slammed RTBU secretary Toby Warnes for the union’s industrial action after more than 1,500 train services were either cancelled or delayed causing commuter chaos across Sydney
‘Yeah, look. Not great. Yesterday was a hard day. I think it was a hard day for everybody,’ Mr Warnes said.
‘The facts of what happened yesterday aren’t as straightforward as what’s been put out, unfortunately.’
Mr Warnes explained the industrial action was more than ‘just a union strike’ and claimed majority of the cancellations and delays due to the Electrical Trades Union refusing to do critical maintenance work between Bondi Junction and Homebush.
Stefanovic fired back claiming Mr Warnes had ‘stuffed it up’ and Sydneysiders suffered because of it.
‘At the end of the day, people just want to go to work. They want to be able to go about their lives,’ Stefanovic said.
‘Now it’s tipped over, now people are angry, now people want resolution and now you’ve lost the support of people out there. You’ve stuffed it up.’
More to come…
