Union proposes single Metro authority

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In November 1998, workers at the ISAP underground railway in Attica, Greece presented a business plan, aimed at creating a single operator for the Athens area Metro system, which is currently being greatly expanded beyond ISAP. The proposal is seen as a major innovation in trade union intervention in support of public services.

The underground electric railway, or Metro, system which serves the Attica region around Athens is currently undergoing expansion, with the building of two new lines in addition to the existing Attica Electric Railways (ISAP) line. On 16 November 1998, the workers at ISAP presented a business plan, which would create a single operator for underground railways in the region. The plan, elaborated by the Institute of Labour of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (INE-GSEE), is in many ways a milestone in trade union intervention aimed at upgrading, restoring to health and developing public services in Greece.

Covering the period from 1999 to 2008, the business plan seeks to give a viable and efficient perspective for a single authority for the whole Metro. It aims to combine provision of effective, high-quality services to citizens with the application of rational economic criteria, and to offer a developmental solution to the crisis in ISAP. In the unions' view, the plan is a response to an approach by the Ministry of Transport which fails to include a well thought-out, clearly stated strategy for urban transport, and fails to address the crisis in ISAP, but leaves attrition to do the work of a "recovery" mechanism. The unions allege that it is clear that the Ministry is seeking to use an independent company to operate the two new lines, as a way of undermining labour relations and social rights in the sector as a whole.

The main assumptions of the business plan are the following:

• ISAP will undergo financial reform. Old obligations and expenses, the result of insufficient subsidy of operating costs during a long period when fares remained at low levels, will be settled. Today, both the Ministry of Transport and the INE-GSEE study concede that the necessary rate of subsidy will begin at 50% of cost per passenger, and then gradually be reduced;

• modernisation will urgently be carried out on the existing line to increase its capacity and compatibility with the new lines;

• the company's operational structure will be reorganised, in order to increase productivity, reduce costs and improve the quality of services; and

• the three lines will be united under a single authority.

In a relevant survey commissioned by ISAP workers, 77.3% of passengers asked to give their opinion of the Metro stated that the ISAP should retain its public and social character, whereas only 17.8% were in favour of privatisation.