Solidarity statement
Safety should be applied in all situations!

On Wednesday night two trains collided head–on outside the town of Larissa in Greece. About
350 people were travelling on the trains. 46 people have died so far, among them 8 workers on the two trains. 90 people are injured and hospitalized and at least 10 people are still missing. This is a result of the privatisation of the railways in Greece that has been going on since the year 2000.

In 2017, the entire railway was sold to the Italian state. The workforce was reduced, maintenance was neglected and the installation of safety systems on the railway never took place, because it cost “too much”. Profit always comes before safety. The radical railway unions in Greece have warned many times that a major accident is on the way if no action is taken. Today, railway employees, including the Athens metro workers, are going  on strike to protest that safety counts as an expense, so that profits for the private companies are not reduced.

The issue of safety within rail transport is topical throughout Europe, as the EU and the national states have a common attitude; that safety should exist as long as the profits of the
private companies are not compromised.

Here in Sweden, we see the same attitude in the form of neglected maintenance within the railway and reduced staff in all categories within our industry. Lately the train companies are removing train conductors with security clearance, and either replace them with train conductors without security clearance or completely remove them which they are doing on the commuter trains in Stockholm. This is despite all the protests from the union Seko as well as the passengers who bring up the fact that there will be major problems with safety and security within the rail traffic. The goal is that it will be cheaper with cameras instead. Again, with the same attitude – that the cost and profit come before security. We consider it shameful that the Social Democrats and the Green Party have gone along with the Moderates’ proposal to dismantle the train conductors and break their promise that the train conductors will remain.

The Stockholm metro union (Seko branch 111) expresses its sorrow and solidarity for our dead co–workers in Greece and to all the families of the killed and injured passengers. Our solidarity goes out to the unions that are on strike for increased safety within the railway.

In the same spirit, we express our solidarity with our colleagues in the Stockholm commuter train railways and the Seko branches within the commuter train railway in the fight to keep the train conductors and not replace them with cameras.

The general assembly of Union of workers in Stockholm’s metro in Sweden