Save Hillside campaigners intend to get their message across to Minister of Transport Steven Joyce when he visits Dunedin to open the State Highway 88 realignment behind Forsyth Barr Stadium this morning.
Mr Joyce is scheduled to make a "flying visit" to Dunedin to officially open the $11.1 million section of realigned state highway at 9.30am, a spokeswoman said.
Save Hillside campaigners intend to join Dunedin unionists to picket the opening to protest against expected job cuts at the South Dunedin rail engineering outfit by national rail carrier KiwiRail.
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union wants Mr Joyce and the Government, as the main shareholder, of KiwiRail, to get the rail company to change its proposal to cut 70 jobs nationwide.
Commercial Trades Union delegate Barry Simpson said a call had gone out to members from various union chapters in Dunedin to attend the opening in support of the Save Hillside campaign.
The campaign was started last month by Hillside employees and the RMTU in response to the announced job cuts proposal.
RMTU delegate David Kearns said some Hillside employees would attend the SH88 opening to picket Mr Joyce in protest at the Government's stance on the proposal.
The RMTU blames the job losses on KiwiRail's insistence on outsourcing more than $500 million of rail manufacturing contracts to China firms, at the expense of New Zealand jobs.
Mr Joyce has side-stepped the issue of whether the state-owned enterprise should keep contracts for the work in New Zealand by saying the Government will not direct KiwiRail's commercial decisions.
