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Railworkers Forced Into Substandard Housing

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Railworkers Forced Into Substandard Housing TransportTHE Worker ISSUE 2 • JUNE 2009 Living conditions 2009 FOCUS ON HILLSIDE Railworkers forced into A spread of photos showing substandard housing the many sides of Hillside Work- shops. Pages 14 to 16 PORT PICS A typical Otira house ready to rent. Top of the South Island ports feature in a photo line-up. HERE'S not much choice of accommodation Workers in the town say the same. in Otira – you can choose poor, pitiful or dire. One, who wished to remain anonymous, said he is Pages 18 & 19 TAnd it’s nearly all owned by Hennah Holdings often asked what it was like before the town was sold. Ltd who appear to have little interest in looking after He replied that it was “great. The houses were the same SPECTACULAR RAIL FIRE their investment. stock but they were maintained by NZ Rail.” Of the approximately 20 houses still standing, rail Unlike today, he says, where Hennah Holdings ap- workers who live there say most would not pass the pear to be happy to watch them deteriorate “slapping government’s recent threshold for rental stock and are on a sheet of iron over rotten boards” or leaving leaks certainly worse than those which housing minister Phil “to sort themselves out”. Heatley saw recently when he visited Porirua. He said one worker complained about his leaking Of the four KiwiRail workers based there, two are house for nearly a year and watched while it was fixed, forced to live in what they call substandard housing but only once he had moved out. owned by Hennah Holdings. Another recently moved Unfortunately, it is preferable that KiwiRail’s workers to a privately owned house across the track and the last live there to provide a viable service to assist the coal took his family to Rotomanu about 40 minutes downhill, trains from Otira to Arthur’s Pass. All the alternatives Hot bogies set a freight both driven out of the Otira township, they say, by the involve long drives on dangerous roads – especially in car alight on the NIMT. state of its accommodation. winter – and considerable ‘down’ time. Page22 RMTU West Coast branch secretary, Paul Foskett, The depth of the problem came to light recently says: “I can’t understand why NZ Rail at the time sold when a new worker to the area tried to find accommo- WWW.RMTUNION.ORG.NZ everything. They could have kept four houses for their workers.” Continued on the next page ISSN 1173-6488 RMTU – NZ's Largest Specialist Transport Union HOUSING dation. He had five houses to choose from and the best of the bunch had no electric hot water, no stove, was littered with rubbish and had a leaking roof. “The only way he could get hot water for a bath after work was to light a chip heater,” said Paul. None of the houses are insulated and unless the worker has a family living there keeping the fires going all day, it’s as cold inside as out. Adding to the misery, at this time of year the sun sets on the town around 2:30pm leaving a frigid and icy welcome when they return from a day’s work. Otira is seven kilometres north of Picturesque Otira from above Arthur’s Pass on the western approach. belies the close-up reality. It was originally a stop on the Cobb & Co stagecoach to the West Coast and consists principally of old railways site. Close to the town are the Otira Tunnel photographic – evidence would suggest housing, much of it constructed in Hamilton and the Otira Viaduct – two key elements of that very few of the houses have reached and shipped south to be reassembled on concern and care for the workers . this standard. Rail workers depart daily from Otira Paul estimates it would cost KiwiRail Station to bank trains up to Arthur’s Pass. about $500,000 to supply four houses for Locomotives are stationed at Otira where its workers. they also can refuel. The rail office and sta- While those who live there choose to do tion buildings are not owned by Hennah so, it is evidently in KiwiRail’s favour, says Holdings. Paul, that they do. In fact, says Paul, KiwiRail still own land “It’s a good job but the place is rubbish,” in Otira and could site some suitable housing said one worker. there for its workers. “In my opinion these houses are well below what the Housing Corporation of NZ are allowed to rent out to their clients,” he said. Rotten weatherboards and lack of In its heyday Otira was home maintenance are evident all around. to about 600 railway workers and their fami- lies until all the railway housing was sold to a private com- Examples of a bathroom and kitchen. pany in 1989. The Hennah family (under the name of Hennah Holdings Ltd) took over in 1998 when they moved there from Auckland. They describe themselves as a family business supplying “au- thentic workers’ cottages” to mainly travellers with “open fires for cosy winter nights”. Local anecdotal – and Page 2 The Transport Worker June 2009 TRAINING Intense training for delegates urinG March this year special training was given to selected port Dand rail delegates from through- (l to r) Paul Foskett (Greymouth), Telai Safesi (Wellington), Andrew Kelly (Lyttelton) out New Zealand in Wellington. and Jackie Poole (Christchurch). The training was delivered by the CTU’s training centre director Bronwyn Maxwell assisted by the RMTU’s own Todd Valster. In part the training was provided to (l to r) Shane MacNae (Mount help the delegates understand that their Maunganui) and Garesh problems were not isolated or necessar- Sukha (Wellington CT). ily unique but were, in fact, common throughout the industries. Telai The process covered such areas as: Sefesi from n Disciplinary procedures and personal Wellington. rights n Mapping as a tactic to encourage CTU Training Centre director Bronwyn Maxwell sends member participation round the begging bowl. n Updating information on legislation (l to r) Ken n Empowering members Jenkins n Networking (Palmerston n Communication North), Jerry n Clarification of roles Hohepa The interaction they had with other (Auckland), union delegates and learning about their Garesh issues, they said, gave them confidence Sukha (Wellington) , Reg Hunter and John Marsh (Waikato) work- to get active and communicate to union Les Ingram Hillside ing on a group exercise. and non-union members alike and gave branch secretary. them encouragement to organise regular meetings and outings. For many this was a pretty steep learn- ing curve but the organisers were well pleased with the results and the enthu- siasm they all had for the tasks to come. Robin (Biggles) As one participant said: “This work- Maindonald Grant Herbert shop has assisted me in bettering my skills Taranaki Port. Marlborough Port. and understanding,” he said. “It’s scary (l to r) Randolph Sladen and Charlotte Marsh how much I didn’t know.” (Auckland Rail). Another said: “The best part of the Tania workshop for me was finding ways of Haraki getting members more active and pas- (Picton sionate about being RMTU and educating Interisland them on their rights and more meaningful Line). meetings.” Rob Stone One of the key messages they left the (l to r) Ken Jenkins (Palmerston North) and (Taranaki seminar with was to promote the impor- Jackie Poole (Christchurch). Rail). tance of the RMTU. The Transport Worker June 2009 Page 3 GENERAL SECRETARY'S COMMENT needless and a senseless waste of time in my view as this country simply cannot af- ford to rip up one more rail line. Anyone CONOMICS figured high on our who thinks that gas-guzzling long distance agendas recently. Delegates to trucks carrying 80% of all NZ land freight the Ports Forum were given an is a sustainable transport option are in in depth appraisal of the current cuckoo land. Eeconomic times by CTU secretary Peter We simply have to develop our rail and Conway and two Port Company CEOs coastal shipping options if we are going to while members within KiwiRail Freight meet our global emission reduction targets were given a financial briefing of the effects and also move future transport goods. The of the recession on the rail business. Those freight task in NZ is predicted to double of us who heard both ‘stories’ very quickly within 20 years. The future is not in build- came to the realis-ation that the fortunes ing yet more motorways whilst at the same of ports and rail are inextricably aligned. time ripping up railway lines and starving What impacts one affects the other. On the survival of those which remain by not the one hand this clearly demonstrates adequately funding them. Now is not the the strategic and tactical advantage of an time to be slashing sustainable transport integrated transport supply chain union spending so as to deliver more tax cuts or like the RMTU whilst on the other it shows any other initiatives to aid the rich. the value of having information flows at Wayne Butson, general secretary. all stages of the supply chain to allow us to see the big picture more clearly. We all The Budget brings ... cancel them would be to lose the contract. Funding for infrastructure in this year's know that information and knowledge are Rail is a high, fixed-cost business and even Budget included $1.45 billion per year (up of immense value. though trains are cancelled it will not be from $900 million) until 2013/14 when it The affect of the current economic easy for the company to reduce its spend.
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