Rail campaign meeting attracts positive public response

A public meeting in South Dunedin to support the campaign to build new trains for Auckland in New Zealand workshops attracted around 50 people last night.

The message they heard was that Dunedin people will have to stand up and fight to make this goal a reality, with this years local body elections and next years national elections providing an opportunity to apply political pressure.

Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) Hillside Branch Secretary Les Ingram, who works at Hillside rail workshops, said an estimated 500 to 1200 extra jobs and nearly $500 million dollars in income were at stake.

"Dunedin cannot afford to let opportunities like this pass it by if we want to provide jobs for local people in the future."

The RMTU were continuing their campaign and wanted to get across to the public how building rail units locally would provide a massive boost in jobs and income.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) is supporting the RMTU campaign and MUNZ General Secretary Joe Fleetwood, visiting from Wellington, addressed the meeting on free trade issues.

He told the audience that they needed to get behind the Hillside workers campaign and demand that politicians listen.

He said the push for free trade policies was largely responsible for the situation where jobs were threatened due to unbalanced economic policies.

Both speakers agreed that the notion that New Zealand did not have the expertise to do the rail work was discredited nonsense.

Mr Ingram detailed previous work done at Hillside and his view was backed up by a retired engineer in the audience who recounted the many large scale projects other Dunedin firms have undertaken in the past.

The meeting was chaired by Victor Billot of the Alliance Party who said that highly skilled, high value jobs that would be created through building trains locally were exactly what was needed in New Zealand at the current time.

The approach of the National Government was reprehensible, he said.