Re: Pendennis Castle

["David Bennetts" <davibenn@pcug.org.au>]

Rod Gayford <rjaygee@smartchat.net.au> wrote in message
86kpqk$isi$1@merki.connect.com.au">news:86kpqk$isi$1@merki.connect.com.au...
> The point is that a foreign company that has exploited Australian workers
> for years and has been in the vanguard of the conservative reactionary
> forces attempting to destroy collective bargaining in this country has
> chosen to donate this locomotive to a UK based group and to my mind that
> says "stuff you Aussies" we will show you where our loyalties lay. Well,
if
> all us gutless Aussies just want to lie back and be pissed over by this
> group then let it go. For me, I am contacting the Maritime unions and any
> other industrial union to have a black ban placed on its export. I bet
> Hamersley will back down once this gets in the papers and shows them up
for
> what they are. I suppose I should not be surprised at the intelligence of
a
> section of rail fans in Australia as they have been tipping money into
that
> far northern NSW scrap yard for years.
>
> Cheers
>
> Rod Gayford (also workplace delegate CPSU)

So then, it's not because of the locomotive's value or otherwise to
Australia, but because you don't agree Hamersley's industrial policies, and
want to start a fight with that nasty multinational corporation.

Too bad about what's best for the loco, if you are successful in getting a
ban placed on its export, it'll probably never run again, either remaining
in the Pilbara, or being sold to another organisation to which it is most
likely unsuited.  As others have pointed out, we have a lot of Australian
locos which could be restored, before we need to import steam engines from
other countries.

If the loco were to be sold within Australia, it wouldn't surprise me if
that  "far northern NSW scrapyard" found the money to purchase it.

Surely you and the CPSU have a lot better things to do than fight Hamersley,
the cut-backs and privatisation in the Public Service which have occurred
under your noses I would suggest are far more relevant and important.

Regards

David Bennetts
Canberra


Or if