The unions call for five days of strike in Renfe and Adif against the transfer of Rodalies

The works councils of Renfe and Adif have agreed this Tuesday to call strikes on November 24 and 30 and on December 1, 4 and 5 in separate meetings held this Tuesday, as reported by the unions.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
06 November 2023 Monday 15:22
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The unions call for five days of strike in Renfe and Adif against the transfer of Rodalies

The works councils of Renfe and Adif have agreed this Tuesday to call strikes on November 24 and 30 and on December 1, 4 and 5 in separate meetings held this Tuesday, as reported by the unions.

These extraordinary meetings have taken place in the two public companies after learning of the agreement reached between PSOE and ERC last week to transfer Rodalies to the Generalitat.

Since the agreement came to light, all unions have criticized it for the lack of information regarding the working conditions of the staff, both the operator and the infrastructure manager.

The Ministry of Transport and the Government defend that it is only a political agreement that does not address, for the moment, technical aspects on how this transfer of powers between the State and Generalitat would be carried out. The institutional secretary of the CC.OO. railway sector, Rafael García, showed this Tuesday on the 24h channel his concern for the future of the workers, with uncertainty "especially in their working conditions." "We are talking about public companies with an important quality of employment. We aspire to maintain that status or improve it, not to go back," he added.

Another problem that the workers have detected is that the agreement has "identical terms" for Adif and Renfe, which leads them to "demand a firm commitment that provides guarantees for the groups in both companies on the same terms," ​​according to a statement from UGT. All unions present in the works councils have supported the strike proposal.

The Government has assured that the working conditions of all workers will be guaranteed and that a collaboration agreement will be made between the Generalitat and Renfe to facilitate labor mobility.

This agreement will include respect for the labor rights acquired by workers, and the Government has committed to the union organizations to explain how the transfer will be carried out and that management will continue to be 100% public.

If PSOE and Sumar finally manage to carry out the investiture, in principle only the tracks that serve lines R1, R2 and R3 will be transferred.

Subsequently, the entire network in Catalonia will be analyzed for future transfers, but provided that they do not affect the railway traffic of more than one autonomous community or international traffic, that they do not include freight traffic or that they can be disaggregated from the network of general interest of the State.