More than a thousand railway workers from more than 14 EU member countries gathered today in front of the European Parliament to protest against the liberalization of the sector and the first package of draft proposals that are being discussed this afternoon in the European institution.
Called by the European Federation of Transport Workers (ETF), the workers and trade unionists denounced the destructive and dangerous measures from the European Commission in relation to the Railway services fragmentation and separation, including the liberalisation of domestic public transportation for the next year.
This project will provoke, according to trade unions, considerably worse work conditions for employees and also the deterioration of services for the users and their security.
The Commission wishes to further impose a minimum service during strikes, which would obviously destroy its impact and heavily affect the right to strike, yet internationally recognized.
Therefore, railway workers from Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Austria and many others decided to unite their voices and find a common way to demand for the full compliance of the right to strike and to fight against the fragmentation and the railway liberalization.
On the same date, a mobilization was also held in Belgium to protest against the opening to competition in the sector: the Deutsche Bahn, the German company, who holds 10% of the group Thalys (making connections in the train between France, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands) with SNCF (62%) and SNCB (28%) now wants to start putting its own trains on the track Paris-Brussels, considered very profitable.