INTERNATIONAL NEWS

RMTnews :: may 2008 :: www.rmt.org.uk 32 A report from an official French government body risks lighting a powder keg among French rail unions following its conclusion that one railway employee in three should be transferred to the RFF. The company was set up in 1997 to finance and maintain 30,000km of track, but without hiring personnel so that the debt of the SNCF, the French national rail company, would be within the limits set down by the EU for companies in the public sector. The idea is to reduce the SNCF’s debt. At the moment the RFF pays the SNCF to maintain the network. If the government accepts the plan, around 55,000 SNCF maintenance employees would lose their hard-won rights and status as national rail employees. The majority CGT union has already said it will “create the conditions for a major movement to oppose the break-up of the SNCF” while five smaller rail unions have also said they oppose any transfer move. T ransport workers in New Zealand celebrated the renationalisation of rail and ferry operations this month. Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) General Secretary Wayne Butson said that move would see national transport assets returned to the people of NZ. “The RMTU campaigned long and hard to get the Labour-led government torenationalise the network,” he said. Mr Butson said that from the day that the government sold off rail to an US-led consortium, the lot of rail workers and customers had gone in a down hill direction and there had been an exodus of key skilled workers. “The flavour of the day was to extract the cash, replace it with debt and do just enough to keep it going,” he said. The RMTU is keen to be a part of the rejuvenation of the New Zealand rail industry so that it can deliver the safe sustainable transport option demanded by global warming and escalating fuel prices. NEW ZEALAND RENATIONALISES RAIL AND FERRY NETWORKS F rance’s powerful port workers’ union FNPD-CGT has stepped up its it’s round of 24-hour strikes with demonstrations and a work-to- rule action that is effecting the country’s port activity resulting in severe delays in ship arrivals and departures. The FNPD-CGT is fighting the conservative government’s plans to privatise stevedoring activity including several aspects of port activity including crane driving and gantry operations. It says that it does not want French ports to be given over to private interests and foreign multinational companies. Despite firm CGT letters calling for dialogue to the French President and Prime minister so that the text can be suspended and amended, the cabinet has approved the basis of a bill shortly to go before parliament. But the union says this will not deter it from stepping up its industrial action. The ports that have been most affected by the action that started at the beginning of April are the seven main French gateways and especially Le Havre, the country’s biggest container port, Marseilles, the biggest general port, where action continues despite a local court decision brought by the port authorities declaring the work to rule illegal. Many other ports have also been affected and the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise liner had to annul its call to Bordeaux. FRENCH PORT WORKERS CONTINUE OPPOSITION TO PRIVATISATION I talian rail unions are concerned that the election in April of right-wing billionaire Silvio Berlusconi as the country’s prime minister could bring forward the opening to competition of rail transport, earmarked by the European Union for January 1 2010. The French government has already announced it wants to advance the date by a month to coincide with winter service schedules. Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) is not out of the red but reported a 2007 loss of 409 million euros, five times smaller than its 2,115 million euro deficit in 2006. Its turnover was almost 15 per cent up in a year. Meanwhile, the new high speed lines between Bologna and Verona and Bologna and Milan are due to begin service by the end of this year with new services between Milan and Novara and between Bologna and Florence opening twelve months later. ITALIAN RAIL UNIONS CONCERNED AT EU COMPETITION RULES FRENCH RAIL UNIONS FIGHT TO DEFEND RIGHTS