A union picket will be in place for at least 12 hours, starting at 9pm tonight, to try and stop new Chinese-built railway wagons from being delivered to a yard in Totara St, Mount Maunganui.
The protest will begin just hours after Dunedin's railway workshop staff find out the fate of
their jobs following KiwiRail's decision to purchase 300 new container flat-top wagons from overseas rather than have them built locally.
Rail and Maritime Union president Aubrey Wilkinson said the ship carrying the wagons was due to berth about 7.30pm, with the first wagon expected to be trucked into the yard by 10pm.
He said the picket would be mounted on the public verge of the road at the only place where the truck carrying the wagons could cross Totara St, heading towards the site at 167 Totara St.
It would take between 12 and 18 hours for the specialist heavy-moving truck carrying each wagon to complete the job of transferring them from the ship to the yard. Mr Wilkinson said picketers would not be putting pressure on the truck driver to stop for the picket.
"It will be entirely over to him or her."
