People attending a public meeting in Dunedin have vowed to use all possible means to stop KiwiRail cutting 41 jobs from its Hillside workshop.
KiwiRail says about 70 workers from the Dunedin and Lower Hutt workshops must go because there is not enough work.
The 200-strong crowd, including Hillside's twilight shift on their tea break on Wednesday night, was fired up by many speeches - some fiercely political.
Dunedin mayor Dave Cull and speakers from Greenpeace, the Otago Chamber of Commerce, and the Labour and Green parties all linked the job cuts to KiwiRail's recent decisions to purchase 500 wagons from China.
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union said it was time to take the campaign to the streets and save the jobs the way the city saved its neurosurgery services last year.
Organiser John Kerr told the meeting the state-owned enterprise will be made to listen and the Government will have to intervene.
KiwiRail says it still plans to close the consultation over the job cuts by the end of next week.
