More than one-third of KiwiRail's 45 Dunedin-based infrastructure and engineering staff could lose their jobs as the company tries to trim costs.
The jobs of 16 staff - 11 track maintenance workers, three communications staff and two structures inspectors - were "on the chopping block", Rail and Maritime Transport Union South Island organiser John Kerr said yesterday.
The proposed cuts and possible strike action in response would be discussed at a branch meeting in Dunedin today, he said.
A similar meeting was held in Christchurch yesterday and more are planned in other parts of the country over the next few days.
KiwiRail announced last month it wanted to cut 181 jobs nationwide, including 43 in the South Island, in an effort to save $14 million. It indicated further job losses were possible next year.
The union believed KiwiRail's "so-called cost reduction programme" was really about contracting out core rail work now done by union members, Mr Kerr said.
"Our members are incensed about what is going on. In Christchurch, members voted unanimously to condemn KiwiRail's plan to axe jobs and put the company on notice that any attempt to contract out or privatise by stealth their work will be met with the strongest possible industrial response." He said he imagined similar resolutions would be passed at the Dunedin meeting.
There were particular concerns about cutting the number of communications staff in Dunedin from 13 to 10, Mr Kerr said.
Communications staff were on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week and maintained radio contact with locomotive drivers.
"Locomotives are single-manned these days. The radios are their lifelines.
"We have been told the 13 staff Dunedin has now are struggling to keep up [with the work]. Our concern is that if communications staff numbers are cut to the bone, driver safety will be compromised."
The union hoped it would be able to save at least some infrastructure and engineering division jobs in Dunedin and elsewhere around the country.
"This is not a lost cause. This is something worth fighting for and our objective is to save as many jobs as we can."
The "last thing Dunedin needed" was more KiwiRail job losses, he said.
The company made 43 staff at Dunedin's Hillside Workshops redundant in June last year.
The jobs of the remaining 120 staff are not affected by the latest proposal.
KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn said the company had no intention of replacing staff with contractors.
"We are making these changes to reduce expenditure. Using contractors to undertake day-to-day work on the network will not achieve savings," he said.
"We have used contractors in the past to supplement our workforce as required, for example during large projects and when intensive work is required, such as work needing to be done in between freight and passenger services running.
"We will continue to do this as we have always done.
"The proposed staff reductions are not about doing the same amount of work we have been doing with less staff. We are simply slowing down the work we will be doing on the network over the next three years."
