The city's rail workers yesterday said they'd been left with no choice but to strike, after their employers repeatedly tried to claw back long-standing working conditions.
But the strike has been cancelled at the last minute after Transdev, which operates the service, agreed to withdraw one of its claims in employment negotiations.
The plan was to cancel all train services from 2am Friday until midnight, with normal services resuming on Saturday, but it was announced Thursday evening the strike would not be going ahead.
In a statement, the union said last-minute mediation had led to the employer agreeing to withdraw its claim against penalty rates for weekend work.
"This shows the power of working people standing together to protect good jobs and fair working conditions."
Greater Wellington Regional Council's chair of the Sustainable Transport Committee, councillor Barbara Donaldson, said they were "pleased and relieved" on behalf of Metlink customers that the strike had been called off.
"More than 30,000 journeys are made on Metlink trains every day and this would have been very disruptive to many customers' travel plans. Since we were advised of the strike late on Wednesday, we've been putting out information so people knew about the likely disruption and could plan their travel. We will now work to let customers know that trains are running as usual.
"I think everyone who usually goes by train will be pleased Friday's strike isn't happening, and we hope the parties will continue to work together in the best interests of Metlink customers."
The almost-strike follows another that happened two weeks ago. Until then, it had been 20 years since an industrial dispute affected Wellington trains for longer than two hours.
Rail and Maritime Transport Union advocate Wayne Butson said earlier that Transdev was trying to claw back long-standing provisions including overtime for working weekends, and industry-standard allowances for tools and specialist technical work.
"Despite going into mediated bargaining, there's been no meaningful change from Transdev and Hyundai," he said.
"This is unacceptable to the people who go to work every day to make Wellington's rail network run. So they're taking the only action they can."
Butson said they'd be happy to accept the offered two per cent pay rise if current terms and conditions were rolled over. That would mean keeping weekend rates and allowances."
Before the cancellation, Transdev was questioning whether the strike was even legal.
"Friday 1 December is the last chance that the RMTU could take industrial action under the current ballot," the company said in a statement.
"Transdev question the legality of this strike."
Transdev Wellington people and culture manager David Gould said good-faith negotiations were "all about give and take".
"We want to continue a collaborative approach to finding solutions with our staff and their union. "
Gould said a two per cent pay rise was fair, and staff would be better off with their offer.
He said the future of rail in Wellington would mean growing the number and scope of services provided, which would mean hiring more staff.
