Queensland’s railway workers are threatening industrial action in the coming months.

Their fight for better pay and work conditions, could cause major disruption for city commuters.

Kieran Rooney reports.

TRANSCRIPT

State Secretaries from the four main railway unions say they’re fed up.

Owen Doogan, Rail Tram and Bus Union: “Well the reality is we’ve been involved in five months of negotiations and workers are getting very frustrated that Queensland Rail was not able to negotiate in an appropriate manner.”

They say a strike will happen if Queensland Rail doesn’t change its policy.

The Australian Metal Workers Union says the government’s wage scheme ignores the current cost of living.

Andrew Dettmer, AMWU State Secretary: “These aren’t highly paid workers your average tradesperson in QR is paid $21 an hour and that’s pretty low for a fitter or a boiler maker.”

It’s a sentiment shared across all railway unions, the Rail Tram and Bus Union say thousands of their workers will support the strike.

If industrial action goes ahead commuters will face massive disruptions for the busy Christmas period.

In the city, some supported the worker’s cause.

Vox 1: “It’s unfortunate but these things happen unfortunately when you work for the government you don’t always get the justified wage rises and you see industrial action sometimes.”

But others agreed a strike isn’t the right way to protest.

Vox 2: “I think that it’s probably better if they don’t, yeah obviously it’s gonna put a few people out.

More than one hundred thousand people use the Citytrain system every day, potential nightmare for commuters if the strike goes ahead.

Kieran Rooney, QUT News.