rail union picking a fight with Ted Baillieu over the PSOs

I was interested to read the chest thumping recently by the Rail,Tram & Bus Union (RTBU) over the incoming Baillieu Government's policy of having Victoria Police Protective Services Officers (PSOs) on every train station after 6pm.
The RTBU came out (predictably) against the plan, and even went so far as to hint at strike action over the proposal. This union has been quite pragmatic since the Kennett era public sector purges of the 90s nearly destroyed them, having shown admirable evasiveness and flexibility to first survive, then to strengthen. The RTBU (through its ambitious ALP pre-selection hopeful Trevor Dobbin) wants the 940 odd prospective PSO recruits to be converted to rail customer service staff instead, but of course the true reason for this is that the RTBU wants another 940 union members which helps cement their strength....it has nothing to do with what's good or bad for the travelling public. It is a turf war plain and simple, better we have 940 new members rather than the police union?
But the union's move in making veiled threats of strike action was bad politics if nothing else. Think about it, you have a newly elected Government coming to power on one of the few election promises that actually resonated with the voters, a plan to visibly reduce the perceived safety threat on public transport! Now they just look like an out of touch band of 70s style ruffians.
A much better way to get their point across to government would be to seek meetings to sort through the logistics of the proposals (of which there are many), and if the RTBU doesn't like the answers they get back, there are plenty of ways to frustrate the government and win concessions. For example, the union can instruct all station staff to refuse to cooperate with the PSOs in any way, ie. refuse to let them in the station to use the toilet or have a meal break etc, and plenty of other little tricks along the same line.
But since we're talking about introducing a massive new transport policing department of over a thousand officers (including the extra Transit (real) Police), why not do the job properly and reestablish a "railway police" department like we previously had for over a 100 years? Unlike the PSOs who have limited prosecutorial powers (unless there's legislative changes?), the old railway police had full police powers on railway property, and prosecuted cases themselves before the courts without having to waste Vic Pol resources. But the Coalition Govt will never go down that route, mainly out of embarrassment that their conservative predecessors were the ones who abolished the concept in 1992, which admittedly was the nationwide fashion of the time. But as a digression, it's interesting to note that the only state not to abolish their railway police in the 90s in favour of a takeover by the State Police was Western Australia. And is it a coincidence that they've got the best best run transport system in the country right now?