An accident in which two locomotives collided and crushed a
man's leg at the Dunedin Rail yard last year cost the company
tens of thousands of dollars and has resulted in a review of
safety procedures.
Some workers made redundant earlier this year at KiwiRail's
Hillside Engineering workshops may be rehired on short-term
contracts following talks yesterday between management and
the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).
The first rake of railway carriages to be designed and built
in New Zealand since 1941 rolled out of Hillside workshops in
Dunedin yesterday, bound for Christchurch.
The union behind redundant Hillside rail workers has renewed
calls for Parliament to address the concerns of almost 14,000
people who want to keep rail-manufacturing jobs in New
Zealand.
Hillside worker redundancies, after owner KiwiRail decided to
accept Chinese tenders to build rolling stock, have united
opponents across the political and business divide.
A rail and Maritime Transport Union delegate at Hillside has
likened rail workers being told they had lost their job
yesterday to "plucking sheep out of a herd".
Hillside union delegates have labelled a visit by KiwiRail
chief executive Jim Quinn to Dunedin this morning as "morally
repugnant'' given the expected confirmation of 40 job cuts at
the South Dunedin engineering outfit later this afternoon.
