Railway workers hold international day of action

On 14 March 2003, the International Transport Workers’ Federation called its fourth annual international railway workers’ action day, entitled 'Safety first'. The aim of the protest was to draw attention to railway workers’ fears that the deregulation of railways around the world is jeopardising the lives of passengers and rail workers. Actions were held in many European countries.

A day of action to draw attention to the issue of safety on the international rail network was held on 14 March 2003, the fourth in a series of protests organised annually by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) (EU0204201N). Mac Urata, the ITF railway secretary, stated that in many countries deregulation of the rail system had led to a reduced workforce, loss of skills and a reduction in the number of competent people maintaining the system. He summed up the aims of the day of action, entitled 'Safety First', thus: 'The main message of railway workers’ action day is that rail transport, deregulated or not, is a public service. Governments, therefore, must take full responsibility for enforcing safety standards on their railways and must include the unions in establishing safety regulations. Otherwise there will be more tragic accidents and more lives lost.' Mr Urata urged unions to follow up the day of action with targeted lobbying of government on rail safety issues.

According to ITF, railway workers in 50 countries worldwide - including many European countries - participated in the day’s events. Activities on and around 14 March included the following:

• a national strike by French rail workers on 18 March;

• trade union safety inspections of trains at border crossings in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina; and

• mass leafleting of stations in Austria, the Netherlands, Greece, the UK, Slovenia, Sri Lanka and Japan.

In addition, safety forums were held in Hungary and there were rallies and demonstrations in Germany – where some 10,000 activists from 14 European countries demonstrated in the centre of Berlin, in response to the accelerating rail liberalisation across Europe – and in India. In Romania, passenger opinion was polled, and in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, pressure was put on rail companies and government officials. New Zealand saw lobbying on health and safety legislation and Bulgarian railway workers called for sectoral collective agreements. Finally, in the UK, which has witnessed a number of serious railway accidents since rail deregulation, rail union officials laid a wreath at a tree planted two years ago outside London’s Euston station to commemorate all those killed on the railways.

In an additional exercise, on 7 March 2003, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) wrote an open letter to European Union transport ministers in advance of their Council meeting on 27/28 March, at which they were to discuss a second package of rail reforms, which included four legislative proposals, as follows:

• a Directive on the 'interoperability' of the trans-European rail system;

• a Directive on safety on the Community’s railways (see below);

• a Directive on the development of the Community’s railways (market access); and

• a Regulation establishing a European Railway Agency.

The Council meeting was also to decide on a European Commission proposal to accelerate progress towards the liberalisation of international rail cargo transport.

The letter from ETF:

• urged the ministers to reject the Commission’s proposal and to vote against another amendment of Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community’s railways;

• expressed concerns that accelerating the liberalisation process would be irresponsible without first ensuring that the prerequisites for safe transport were met and that the initial stages of liberalisation had been met;

• demanded an adequate participation of employee representatives in the proposed European Railway Agency;

• underlined the need for safety objectives in the proposed Directive on Safety on the Community’s railways) (COM 2002 (21 final)); and

• stressed creating better working conditions for road transport employees and drew attention to threats of 'social dumping' and dangers for safety.