SFM workers will hold partial strikes: "It's the only way to fix things"

PalmWorkers at Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca (SFM) have agreed to call partial strikes to demand improvements in the safety of the island's rail network. The decision was made at a meeting held at midday on Monday following the fatal accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Gelida (Barcelona), according to the SFM works council. The approximately 70 workers (out of a total of 190) who participated in the meeting expressed their overwhelming support for the call for partial strikes. Only four votes were cast against. The works council will meet on Wednesday to finalize the details of these actions, which will begin with low-intensity strikes to minimize disruption to passengers. The sources consulted indicated that it would be desirable for an agreement to be reached with the Government to implement the demanded safety improvements before these partial strikes could take effect (which could begin ten days after the ballot was registered with Tamib). The assembly, despite the willingness to reach an agreement with the public company, was "phlegmatic" and served as a platform for workers to outline the problems identified in each of SFM's areas. Shortly before the meeting, the president of the works council, Ricardo Más, had already assumed that the workers would demand the calling of the partial strikes. "After so long being ignored, the only thing left for us is collective action," he emphasized. "If the company doesn't want this to affect users, we must sit down and talk about safety improvements," he added.

The committee president believes that now that state and regional rail services across Spain are "sitting down to review their safety standards" following the Adamuz and Gelida accidents, it's a good time to do the same in Mallorca. "We know firsthand that there are many things here that need improvement, things that have been reported for a long time and ignored, almost trivialized, and we believe it's time," he pointed out.

These potential safety improvements, he clarified, are more about "internal" issues than "large-scale" statistics and are addressed in various operational plans. For example, he explained, the workers have been demanding the creation of a traffic safety committee for six years "to study each incident and develop protocols to prevent them." He also demanded improvements in communication, considering it unacceptable "that what happens on the tracks is communicated by telephone and there is no traceability." Many incidents, he asserted, go unreported and others "are covered up."

Added to this is the demand for greater speed in resolving issues with overhead lines, track closures, or track diversions, which for a long time are left "to the discretion of the train drivers." "They are given speed limits, up to seven times a day, and the broken tracks they've reported are still there three days later, and the drivers have to be constantly monitoring the speed limit because it's not being fixed," he pointed out.

The Government's position

Asked about the matter before Monday's assembly, the Minister of Housing, Territory, and Mobility, José Luis Mateo, expressed his openness to negotiating with the workers. However, he asked them to inform him of their security demands before deciding to initiate any protests, as he claimed to be unaware of them. "If a strike is called, it must be based on some reason," argued the minister, who assured that all the workers' complaints had been resolved, answered, or were at least being processed. "We respect any decision made in a workers' assembly. What we would like, in any case, is for them to speak with us first and tell us what their needs are," he insisted. Mateo also asked that the incident on the mainland, "a tragic accident," be separated from the situation of the rail network in Mallorca. "If we have a safe network, our trains are safe, and we are responding to the requests and suggestions we receive from the works council... I think that answers the question," he said when asked if he would understand if the workers were to mobilize.