The National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIANs contribution to the - - PDF document

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The National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIAN’s contribution to the public presentation on “European Rail Freight Corridors” Bucharest, 17 September 2009

The National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIAN “Solutions through social dialogue and negotiations” The National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIAN is a nationally representative trade union organisation to which are affiliated federations, national unions and unions representing workers from: transport, public television, mining, defence, public service, judicial staff, police and other institutions responsible for public

• rder, water management, forestry, metallurgy, agriculture, etc.

Since its founding in 1994, NTUC MERIDIAN has passed through every phase of trade unionist

• manifestation. Initially, its aim was to obtain a quick and lasting effect, supposed to represent workers' claims.

The political, social and economic evolution of Romania led unions to adapt their means of fighting and negotiating to the requirements of the new order established with the events of December 1989. For trade unions, the changes have been visible. Romanian trade unions have gradually had to come to terms with the idea that the State is no longer the main social partner, that, due to current circumstances in Romania, it has proven to be an inefficient manager of public companies, and that it is creating fewer and fewer jobs. Trade unions and employers have begun to learn this lesson, and we should recognise the importance in this regard

• f European programmes, the support of our European colleagues, and the teachings of autonomous bipartite

social dialogue. In some areas, this type of social dialogue is effective and meets expectations, while in others, the opposite applies. Another lesson that MERIDIAN learned during the strong trade unionist movement of the miners and railway workers in the years 1997-1999 was to establish a culture of negotiation and ongoing constructive dialogue. In this respect, the organisation began to promote the interests of union members and the communities from which they came, launching a series of national and international conferences, seminars, workshops and debates. Social and civic dialogue has become our main tool to interact with other partners: government, employers’

• rganisations and civil society organisations. The presence of the confederation’s representatives in the

Economic and Social Council of Romania and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) guarantees that the economic and social interests of our members are represented and enables us to be part of

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an institutionalised process of social and civic dialogue which is rendered legitimate by the Constitution and national and European regulations. The Romanian pre-accession period and subsequently that of effective EU membership was favourable to expanding the organisation’s area of interest from national to European level and revealed new opportunities and tools to modernise and boost the efficiency of trade union negotiation. A number of social rights were won de facto due to our country’s commitment to implementing European Community legislation, which in many respects is more favourable to Romanian workers. Other rights, such as the freedom of association, were strengthened. At European level, at the initiative of the affiliated federation and through the representative of the confederation in the EESC, NTUC MERIDIAN is committed to promoting and supporting issues of strategic interest both for Romania and the European Union. Since 2007, the EESC has issued three opinions, the rapporteur for which was MERIDIAN’s representative: two on the non-energy mining industry and one on European rail freight corridors. NTUC MERIDIAN is involved in the European and national debate regarding the creation of a European network giving priority to freight. Why this debate was held in Bucharest In a society addicted to oil, under a continuous threat of depletion of oil resources in less than 50 years, and facing the apocalyptic scenario in which climate change caused by human activities could lead to irreversible changes on our planet, now is the time to realise that the world cannot continue to evolve in the same way because this might be the end of human civilisation. This is a turning point that will influence the life of the next generations. It is well known that transport activities are largely responsible for carbon emissions into the Earth’s

• atmosphere. At the same time, mobility of people and goods is now more important than ever. Almost every

human activity involves the use of some kind of transport. It is quite simple: at this level of development of human civilization, we cannot deprive ourselves of the need to carry and to be transported, but what we can do is make every effort to create more efficient ways and means of transport that will reduce air and noise pollution as well as congestion of the main regional, national and European transport networks. Europe is a continent with a very well developed road infrastructure compared to other parts of the world. The EU's road transport plays a decisive role in ensuring mobility of people and goods. Most Europeans feel that investment in road infrastructure is vital and they want politicians to produce practical solutions. However, largely owing to the prospect of oil reserves running out, the European Union is committed to encouraging co-modality in transport activities and to supporting the development of infrastructure for environmentally-friendly modes of transport, making us less dependent on oil. Rail transport might be one of the main solutions for ensuring sustainable mobility for citizens and goods in the post-oil era. Besides the need to develop an appropriate infrastructure for waterways, it is also necessary to expand and upgrade rail infrastructure in order to have efficient and competitive rail transport services.

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The initiative of the European Commission of encouraging Member States to contribute to the creation of European rail transport corridors for freight incorporates a series of actions and strategic measures promoted by the EU institutions at global and Community level in order to mitigate the negative effects of global warming, reduce all forms of pollution and implement a growth model based on sustainable development principles. NTUC MERIDIAN’s position on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning a European rail network for competitive freight is similar to that expressed in the EESC opinion. The EESC plenary session held on 15 July 2009 in Brussels, adopted the EESC opinion on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning a European rail network for competitive freight (COM(2008) 852 final – 2008/0247 (COD)). The EESC rapporteur for this opinion was the representative of the National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIAN in this European advisory body. Rail freight corridors is an innovative and strategic approach taken by the European Commission. It is designed to enable, through investment and concrete political actions, the future development of the rail transport network in Europe, in addition to enhancing the quality and interoperability of rail infrastructure and services and boosting the attractiveness of this mode of transport so that in the short and medium term, it will be possible to attract significant freight volume which up to now has been transported by road. Establishing the necessary conditions at European and national level to increase freight volumes transported by rail might result in a major drop in carbon emissions, decongestion of road traffic and an enhanced level of safety for road transport.

The Confederation and the trade union federations from this sector affiliated to NTUC MERIDIAN have been actively involved in this European debate by organising specific trade union actions and consulting European and national decision-making authorities: the discussion held with Mr Jonathan Scheele, Director of DG Transport is an important aspect of this, involving the presentation of the EESC opinion as well as the main issues connected to the worrying situation of the Romanian rail sector. The President of the National Trade Union Confederation MERIDIAN, Mr Ion Popescu, has secured the participation and partnership of Mr Scheele and the European Commission in the

• rganisation of a debate to be held in Bucharest in September 2009, at the initiative of MERIDIAN and in partnership

with the EESC, the European Commission, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

Three important trade union organisations in the transport sector are affiliated to MERIDIAN: the National Federation of Trade Unions Traffic-Trade in Rail Transport, Romanian Railway Transporters Trade Union Federation and the Federation of the Railways Construction Workers’ Unions and Ways of Communication of

• Romania. All three trade unions are representative social partners in their sector of activity.

The situation of rail transport in Romania. Actions proposed by trade union federations from this sector

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The national trade unions cannot remain indifferent to the decline or even destruction of certain sectors of the economy which provide jobs for hundreds of thousands of employees. Economic and social disasters are generally caused by the lack of coherent sectoral strategies, or if they exist, by their poor implementation. In spite of the fact that national programmes and political documents, including the National Security Strategy

• f Romania, considers rail transport to be part of the “critical infrastructure" of the country and in spite of the

fact that the EU has established a set of priorities in this area which should be taken into consideration by all Member States, actual behaviour and attitudes do not reflect this. Railway workers were decimated during the “reforms" of the railway sector in the last decade. The system has retained less than one third of its employees. While the National Railway Company employed 220 000 people in the 1990s, today their number hardly reaches 75 000, and technological progress is almost nil. The redundancies at the basis of the previous “reforms” have not led to improvements in the system but rather to its continuing deterioration. This situation is unacceptable and we consider that it is vital to identify realistic solutions to solve the serious and complex problems confronting the Romanian railway network. Despite indicators highlighting the importance of rail transport and the unquestionable advantages of this mode of transport (energy efficiency, land use and low impact on the environment, traffic safety, a major social component and last but not least, the country’s defence needs), decisions have been taken to reduce capacity and the length of rail networks, leaving tens of thousands of workers out of a job. The rail system cannot be compared with a luxury car bought through a leasing scheme that can be changed

• vernight, and the railway worker cannot be retrained as quickly as a minister who passes from one ministry

to another. The railway system and its workers are the result of a national effort and a specific vocation for this type of activity and for this reason it is important to avoid incompetent and hasty decisions. The state must urgently intervene to halt the alarming technical decline of Romania's rail system In spite of the fact that in most EU countries this environmentally friendly and safe mode of transport is strongly promoted and funded by the state, encouraging a road network decongestion policy by stimulating the modal shift of passenger and freight flows from roads to rail, in Romania, railways hardly survive from

• ne day to the next, sinking under huge debts accumulated over time, without any hope of their being paid.

Moreover, EU policy is clearly oriented towards promoting rail transport, stating very clearly that at least 55%

• f investments in Pan-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) should be directed towards rail projects and no

more than 25% to road transport. In Romania, the opposite applies: investment in road infrastructure is five times higher than investment in railways. The Romanian state has thus created an unacceptable discrimination against its own rail network, with a disastrous impact on railway undertakings, rail freight and passenger transport, with a continuing decline in demand in favour of other modes of transport. Romania has the highest prices in Europe for the use

• f the railway infrastructure.

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Perennial under funding of maintenance activity has led to a permanent deterioration of the Romanian railway system, with its 20 385 km of lines and some 992 railway stations. The logical reaction of any government in times of crisis is to start investing in infrastructure. This should therefore be a good time to bring the rail infrastructure back in line with modern technical parameters that should be complied with if we wish to fully integrate our rail systems into European transport networks. The state budget must thus provide the funds needed to restore the railway infrastructure and maintain it, in

• rder to eliminate the losses of the infrastructure manager and to achieve a fair price that should be paid by

railway undertakings to use the rail infrastructure. Reducing the price for the use of railway infrastructure To establish fair competition between modes of transport, prices for the use of railway infrastructure must be reduced to a level equivalent to the rates that the Romanian state charges road operators. RO-LA transport (trucks which are transported in special train wagons) should be exempted of charge for the use of rail infrastructure due to the fact that this transport method is less polluting and helps reduce environmental damage. In this context, we call for the total elimination of the absurd tax on fuel used to supply the engines for passenger rail transport, rail freight transport and the locomotives and equipment used for the overhaul and maintenance of rail infrastructure. This tax, meant to finance the maintenance of road infrastructure, is in fact a hidden subsidy in favour of road transport levied on railway undertakings. Compensating the difference between operating costs and the imposed social tariffs for passengers All civilized European countries use lower prices for public passenger rail transport, providing people with good quality and affordable transport by covering the difference between the operating costs and the social tariffs imposed by the state. Such compensation equals around 40% of the total revenue of state railway

• perators in EU countries. In Romania, besides the fact that compensation does not cover the cost difference,

being systematically reduced from year to year, the effect is totally cancelled due to the high tariffs charged for the use of rail infrastructure. Finding an urgent solution to erase the debts of the national rail infrastructure manager (Compania Nationala CFR SA) In this way, the company could have access to European funds for the development of railway infrastructure. It should be noted that, currently, several EU Member States rehabilitate their rail system using Community funds. If no such solution is found, Romania will lose the funds currently allocated for this purpose. Railway undertakings should purchase the energy directly from suppliers Enabling railway undertakings to purchase electricity directly from suppliers would support their functioning in a free transport market, eliminating the costs imposed by intermediaries that can double the final price of

• electricity. Any dispute between intermediaries and the electricity suppliers have undesirable effects on

railway undertakings.

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Securing from the state budget the funds needed for investment in upgrading and buying rolling stock for state railway undertakings This is needed to ensure the competitiveness of Romanian rail transport by providing the necessary financial resources for both the passenger transport company SNTFC “CFR Calatori" S.A. and the freight company SNTFM “CFR Marfa" S.A, in order to modernise and repair locomotives and wagons and ensure the procurement of modern rolling stock, in preparation for the forthcoming liberalisation of access to railway infrastructure. It is also necessary to promote intermodal transport through a system of state aid for the development of these transport activities (subsidies for intermodal transport, including RO-LA transport and Ferry-Boat, financial support for infrastructure development and equipment procurement, etc.) Documents used: Petition to avoid serious social conflicts in the railway system, addressed to the Romanian Government by the Railway Trade Union Alliance of Romania and the Train Drivers Federation of Romania, during the protests of 29 April 2009, involving more than 10 000 railway workers NTUC MERIDIAN open letter of 29 April 2009, addressed to the Romanian Government during the protests by workers from the rail transport sector