Strikes held on railways

In November 2005, several short strikes were organised by the Railway Traffic Union of Slovenia (SZPS) and some smaller rail trade unions. The strikes appeared to relate both to current plans to restructure the Slovenian Railways Holding Company and to demands for better working conditions. The majority of rail unions opposed the strikes.

On 18 October 2005, the Railway Traffic Union of Slovenia (Sindikat zelezniskega prometa Slovenije, SZPS) announced that it would hold a four-hour strike (between 08.00 and 12.00) of all its members on Wednesday 9 November, to be repeated every Wednesday until the union's demands were met. The union informed the Slovenian Railways Holding Company (Holding Slovenske zeleznice, HSZ) management and the public that: all international passenger traffic trains and all freight trains transporting rapidly perishable goods, dangerous substances and live animals would run normally; and all trains starting their run before the beginning of the strike would reach their final station.

SZPS was founded in 1990 as the Trade Union of Train Dispatchers of Slovenia and Istria (Sindikat vlakovnih odpravnikov Slovenije in Istre, SVOSI). At that time, it was recognised as a representative union for the occupation of train dispatcher. In 2002, it renamed itself as SZPS. According to media reports, it currently represents around 1,250 members in all occupations (many in the railway infrastructure sector). In November 2005, SZPS joined KNSS - Independence, Confederation of New Trade Unions of Slovenia (KNSS - Neodvisnost, Konfederacija novih sindikatov Slovenije, KNSS) (SI0210102F), one of the six central trade union organisations officially recognised as representative federations or confederations.

SZPS strike demands

The SZPS president and president of its strike board, Ivan Senkis, said at a press conference that SZPS was organising strike action because of a deep economic and general crisis at HSZ, which is making heavy losses that are likely to increase in 2005. A continuation of this crisis would, he said, endanger the job security of workers and SZPS felt a duty to bring the issue to the fore by holding strikes. Mr Senkis also stated that the traffic on Slovenian railways is still running according to old Yugoslav regulations.

On 18 October, SZPS adopted a set of strike demands, demanding that HSZ management should:

• take measures to stop the current fall in the amount of freight carried and the revenues from transport and to increase HSZ's market activities - these measures would help ensure the job security of workers (this was the union's main demand);

• adopt a comprehensive personnel policy covering a period of at least five years, which would ensure the accomplishment of HSZ's business goals and end alleged unlawful practices concerning overtime work and the use of the annual leave;

• abolish pay discrepancies through changes in job classification and a comparative evaluation of individual jobs;

• begin immediately to train railway workers on new signalling rules and ensure the technical conditions for the safe implementation of the changed regulations;

• adopt measures to ensure the use of legally guaranteed breaks during work;

• adopt special instructions for the determination and execution of shifts by all railway workers and instructions for filling in working time records;

• pay workers the supplement for work at border stations (which demands knowledge of the regulations of neighbouring railways), as determined by the current sectoral collective agreement for railway transport;

• ensure at all workplaces adequate working conditions and the minimum standards determined by the rules on requirements for ensuring health and safety;

• find out who is responsible for delays caused by the use of radio connections etc; and

• regulate the special characteristics of the occupation of train dispatcher by a special agreement, as provided for by the current railways sectoral collective agreement.

Mr Senkis stated that there is practically no social dialogue between HSZ management and certain trade unions. Therefore, management should establish equal dialogue with all unions organising within HSZ.

Strikes and agreement

A four-hour strike was held on 9 November and repeated on 16 November. After negotiations between management and SZPS failed, the union announced an escalation of strike activity. On 16 November, it called a 24-hour strike to be held on Monday 28 November, which would be repeated every Monday until the union's demands were fulfilled.

On 24 November, the government adopted a decree determining the level of railway traffic that should be maintained during strikes. According to the decree, the following trains would be obliged to run:

• all international passenger and freight trains;

• domestic freight trains transporting livestock, perishable goods and dangerous substances; and

• domestic passenger trains at rush hours.

On 25 November, SZPS and HSZ management reached an agreement and the union cancelled the one-day strike that was scheduled for 28 November.

Other unions call strike

The Independent Track Maintenance Activity Union of Slovenia (Samostojni sindikat progovzdrževalne dejavnosti Slovenije, SSPDS), the Safety Signalling and Telecommunication Devices Union Celje (Sindikat delavcev signalnovarnostnih in telekomunikacijskih naprav Celje, SVTK Celje) and the Safety Signalling and Telecommunication Devices Union Pivka (Sindikat delavcev Pivka signalnovarnostnih in telekomunikacijskih naprav, SVTK Pivka) also called a two-hour strike on 15 November 2005, from 06.30 to 08.30. They presented 11 strike demands (similar to those of SZPS) to HSZ management. Among other points, these three unions demanded that management should ensure adequate conditions for the functioning and maintenance of railway infrastructure and adopt measures to improve the performance of HSZ.

On 12 December, SSPDS and HSZ management signed a deal, whereby the union agreed to suspend strike activity pending talks. If its demands are not met, however, SSPDS will organise a two-hour strike on 16 January 2006. Management said that it would deal with the demands by 15 January.

Commentary

The present centre-right government wants to change the current legislation regulating the railways (SI0512302F). In 2002, the centre-left government of the time prepared a reorganisation model that would split Slovenian Railways into three companies and partially privatise two of them. A referendum was held on 19 January 2003 over whether Slovenian Railways should remain a single company - as supported by the majority of representative railway workers’ unions (see below), but not by SZPS or SSPDS - or be restructured according to the government's scheme. The vote went in favour of the government's model (SI0401102F), which was subsequently implemented.

Some commentators ask whether the changes being considered by the new government will be contrary to the results of the 2003 referendum. The question is whether the present government wants to reorganise HSZ in line with the losing proposal in that referendum, which was backed by many of the railway workers’ unions. These unions demand that HSZ should be made into a single company again (as Slovenian Railways was before 2003) and allocated the public railway infrastructure management role now held by the Public Agency for Rail Transport of Republic of Slovenia (Javna Agencija za zelezniski promet Republike Slovenije, JAZPRS). This group of unions have accused SZPS and SSPDS of ignoring the common interest of all workers employed at HSZ by not supporting its demands to reorganise HSZ as a single company. The majority of rail unions opposed the strikes organised by SZPS and the other unions. Like HSZ management, they claimed that these strikes were politically motivated because they were organised at the time when sweeping changes of the railway legislation were being prepared.

It is difficult to find out whether the real aim of the November strikes was to:

• oppose the mooted changes to the railway legislation that would probably again unify HSZ and give it the role of managing the public railway infrastructure (now held by the JAZPRS); or

• achieve better working conditions.

Some of the strike demands (eg that the management should take measures to stop current negative business trends) point to the first possibility. Other strike demands (such as the abolition of excessive pay differentials between categories of workers) point to the second possibility.

The general secretary of the Railway Workers’ Union of Slovenia (Sindikat zeleznicarjev Slovenije, SZS) - one of the majority group of rail unions that want a return to the old unified rail company structure - is Albert Pavlic. Mr Pavlic is also the president of the Union of Workers' Solidarity (Zveza delavcev Solidarnost, Solidarnost) and a workers’ director at HSZ - ie a member of HSZ management. He was a member of the HSZ management negotiating team that negotiated with the SZPS strike board before the SZPS held its strike action. Thus a senior trade union official negotiated with another trade union. Mr Senkis, the SZPS president, demanded the removal of Mr Pavlic from the HSZ management negotiating team, but without success. (Stefan Skledar, Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development)