Transport Minister Steven Joyce and KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn both promised railway workers there would be no job losses arising from buying new rolling stock.

At a picket at the Port of Tauranga's Maui St gate this morning Rail and Maritime Union members are picketing to protest the loss of jobs resulting from the decision to buy Chinese made wagons.

See video below of union president Aubrey Wilkinson talking about why this protest is important. Pictured: Protestors at the Port of Tauranga this morning.

The wagons shipment follows the arrival at Tauranga in November last year of Chinese built locomotives, which were discharged without industrial protest.

'Up until recently the information we were given was that there would be no danger of job losses in the rail sector,” says the union president Aubrey Wilkinson.

Those assurances were from Transport Minister Steven Joyce and KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn, says Aubrey.

'At the time when the government was calling the contracts the message we were getting from KiwiRail and the government was, ‘you will miss out on building the locomotives, you will miss out on the build for the electrical multiple units that are required in Auckland, but you will get a chance to do some of the build for the flat deck wagons that are arriving in Tauranga at the moment'.”

Steven Joyce assured union members at the union's conference two years ago that there would be no job losses.

Now 40 men at the Dunedin Hillside works and 30 at Lower Hutt are to lose their jobs.

KiwiRail chief executive officer Jim Quinn was also continuing the assurances until ‘not so long ago', says Aubrey.

'About two or three months ago the language from Jim Quinn started to change,” says Aubrey.

'That gave us an indication that something was not quite right.”

The union learned through the media and other sources that the build for the wagons that KiwiRail wanted was going offshore and nothing was going to be built in New Zealand.

'That's the reason why we didn't protest quite some time ago,” says Aubrey.

'There was going to be no job losses – we were assured we would have plenty of work to keep going.

'It's not fair to be shafted. We have to do something about it. The aim is to raise public awareness. We are not about trying to stifle any other business, we need to raise public awareness and get the public on board with us apply pressure publicly and politically.”