Cargo workers’ strike to continue
Federal Railways Cargo workers say they will continue their 18-day strike following the breakdown of talks with management.
In a resolution issued on Tuesday the strikers said it was not possible to conduct serious discussions with the Federal Railways leadership. But they declared themselves still open to dialogue.
The resolution called for political intervention to end the standoff because “the Federal Railways management is incapable of conductng a dialogue in a spirit of honesty, transparency and social responsibility”.
The strike was called after the loss-making freight unit announced plans to axe around 400 jobs – 126 of them in Italian-speaking Bellinzona.
Both sides blamed each other for the failure of the talks on Monday night.
“Cargo has not moved one millimetre,” union leader Gianni Frizzo told media.
The head of Federal Railways, Andreas Meyer, said the unions’ demands were too high. Federal Railways had indicated it would be prepared to make some concessions.
But Meyer said the unions’ demands for guarantees would mean the company was “bound and gagged”.
The rail union has said it is willing to consider the privatisation of certain services, but indicated its members will not return to work until Cargo guarantees locomotive maintenance jobs at the Bellinzona depot.
In his Easter message, the Catholic bishop in the southern canton of Ticino urged both sides to cooperate in ending the strike.
Restructuring
In early March, Cargo announced restructuring plans after having lost SFr190 million ($185.73 million) in 2007.
Soon afterwards, angry workers in Bellinzona walked off the job. They have accused Cargo bosses of incompetence and mismanagement.
Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger said at the time that the planned overhaul was inevitable to ensure the survival of the company.
However, last week, as several thousand union members and supporters protested in front of parliament, Leuenberger suggested the jobs could be saved.
“Federal Railways is ready to consider alternatives [to job cuts],” Leuenberger told parliament on Wednesday.
Strikes in Switzerland are still a relatively rare occurrence.
swissinfo with agencies
Swiss Federal Railways Cargo is Switzerland’s leading provider of freight services.
It has a workforce of about 4,400 and generated 12.3 billion net metric ton-km of traffic last year.
The cargo division was launched as a separate business unit in 2000 and has been plagued with deficits and restructuring.
After losing SFr190.4 million in 2007, it announced layoffs and relocations for sites in Bellinzona, Fribourg, Basel and Biel.
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