The Renfe and Adif workers set the first conditions to cancel the strike they have called on November 24 and 30 and December 3, 4 and 5 to protest the PSOE agreement with ERC for the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat of Catalonia. The representatives of the workforce have demanded this Wednesday to continue belonging to both public companies to maintain their labor rights. They do not enter into a political agreement, but they do demand that their employment situation not deteriorate.
The Renfe and Adif workforce is currently made up of 4,000 workers in Catalonia. 2,500 belong to Renfe and another 1,500 to Adif. Its objective is not to be subrogated to the new mixed company that the investiture pact reflects, managed jointly by the central and regional governments. “We have a series of rights that would be violated,” said Andrés Rubio, president of the general committee of the Renfe group. "The workers want to continue belonging to their companies, we are not opposed to the transfer of powers, but rather that the transfer implies a subrogation of the workforce," added Josefa Páez, general secretary of the railway sector of CC.OO.
For the representatives of the workforce, avoiding this subrogation to a new company is essential “because the rights would not be guaranteed,” representatives of UGT, the Semaf central office or the Railway Union have pointed out. They have referred to salary conditions, incorporation processes, training activities and other rights that they now enjoy and that, as they have reported, could disappear if they become part of a new company.
Union representatives have also pointed out that another risk they face is the possibility that the agreement with ERC encourages other autonomous communities to demand a similar transfer of Cercanías services. Throughout the country there are 30,000 workers between both companies. The unions point to “general concern” about the possibility of fragmentation into 17 transfers.
“This does not fix the problems that all modules are suffering. Why don't the trains run properly? Because we don't have spare parts. This cannot be fixed by having Pere Aragonès as head of the service, instead of Sánchez,” they denounced.
