A sale of part of the Hillside railway workshops in Dunedin could be scuppered by the employees there.
Last week KiwiRail announced it had conditionally sold the foundry to Bradken, an Australian company, and was closing the rest of the workshops and sacking up to 90 people.
A condition of the sale is the transfer of at least 12 foundry staff to Bradken.
Union officials say the 23 foundry workers are split on the deal, under which those who transferred would wind up on lower wages.
KiwiRail's chief executive Jim Quinn says he hopes they won't hold out in an attempt to keep KiwiRail owning the foundry, because there's no guarantee of that.
