Scott Morrison has blasted the Sydney train drivers union for leaving the city in chaos after calling a strike at 2am.
As Australian welcomes international tourists for the first time in almost two years, arrivaxjmtzywls in Sydney have been left stranded at the train station alongside commuters and students after the Rail Tram and Bus Union cancelled all city trains mere hours before morning peak hour.
While extra buses have been put on roads, Sydneysiders have been urged to avoid travel if they can.
The Prime Minister has chastised the union, saying this is “just not how you behave”.
“This is not how you treat your fellow citizens,” Mr Morrison told 2GB.
“We’ve had nurses, we’ve had teachers, we’ve had police officers and everyone working hard through the pandemic, and we’ve got international arrivals opening up today and the union’s welcome to them will be a train strike.
“I mean, this is just not how this should be done. And I feel for all those Sydneysiders today who are affected by the strike.
“It’s great news (that international arrivals are returning), but the union movement has decided to really pull the rug out from under that on our first day back.”
Mr Morrison said there was “no doubt” unions across the country were ramping up action and offered a warning ahead of the election: “It’s a foretaste of what to expect with licence from Labor.”
His comments come a week after the government “stared down” the Australian Maritime Workers Union, which planned to strike in the face of the AUKUS agreement.
“They backed off. That’s what our government will do when it’s falling into our areas of responsibility, and I’ve no doubt the NSW government will take a strong stand as well,” he said.
“But when they (unions) think they’ve got the power, well, you know what they do? We’ve seen it before from our waterfront to now our trains.”
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the union was being “deliberately provocative and belligerent”.
“It will exacerbate the problem full stop. When you call a strike at 2am you are picking a fight, not calling a strike, and being a bully,” he told Channel 7.
Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon responded by saying despite the disruption, a “lot of Sydneysiders will be sympathetic to their cause”.
“When strikes are called, it is usually for complex reasons. Surely Barnaby is not suggesting that workers be denied the right to withdraw their labour,” he said.
“They have been on this campaign for a long time and the NSW government has mismanaged it.”
