On March 18th the European railway strike will take place. Eight unions
in five countries will take action. In Sweden SAC, the Syndicalists, will
strike at the City railways, Connex, Roslagstrains and Statens Järnvägar
in Stockholm.
Here in Sweden the employer organisation ALMEGA has tried to challenge
the strike as illegal in front of the labour court/NLRB. It was a direct
attack against the rights of the minority union’s right to take strike
action – and they failed. If they had been given right it would have been
a hard blow against the right to politically motivated strikes and
freedom of speech in general.
The background to the strike is deregulations and privatisations of the
railways in EU. In the whole of Europe the deregulations led to worsened
conditions in all areas – service, security, working environment, not
speaking about the costs for the taxpayers.
The worsening in the collective traffic is not a coincidence; it is
driven by a global strategy that in the long view will break down the
commonly owned society.
Those who work in public transport are affected by worsened employment
security, stress, raised retirement age – the list can be made a long
one. What’s more, security is out of the game when money is the only
thing that counts.
This is why we give our wholehearted support for the strike and struggle
against privatisation.
The International Committee of the Syndicalist Youth Federation of Sweden
Link:
http://www.suf.cc
