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Swiss transport union commits to lobby on safety and public ownership
21 May 2009
A Swiss transport union has promised to campaign on stamping out violence in the workplace and to step up efforts to ensure cargo transport remains public.
Delegates attending the congress of the ITF-affiliated transport union, SEV, on 19-20 May in Berne, Switzerland, passed a resolution on a “Safety first” campaign. The resolution noted how every year over 1500 incidences of violence were taking place against workers, injuring more than 200. The union wanted to see a number of measures implemented, including training for staff on dealing with violent passengers.
Participants also passed a resolution on cargo transport, which outlined the importance of ensuring that the service's public sector status remained intact. It was crucial to prevent competition from ruining the service, which was already in a precarious state, delegates agreed.
In addition, the union emphasised that it was moving to organise in all transport branches – both public and private – from its railway base.
Addressing the congress, ITF general secretary David Cockroft congratulated the union on its efforts to organise across traditional industry borders and thanked it for its work to promote integrated public transport. The crisis, he said, gave unions an opportunity to reduce the power of market forces in transport and return to integrated transport planning and the promotion of more “green jobs.”
He expressed appreciation for the union’s longstanding support for ITF railway action days and the campaign to secure the release of Mansour Osanloo, the Tehran bus workers’ union leader, from jail in Iran.
The congress was also addressed by Alexander Kirchner, new president of German railway union, Transnet, who outlined his union’s commitment to the philosophy of cooperation, rather than competition, in Europe’s rail network.
The congress elected Giorgio Tuti as SEV’s new president, following the sudden death of his predecessor Pierre Alain Gentili in 2008.
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