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World rail safety day Monday
4 March 2005
Over a quarter of million rail workers in 65 countries will act to secure safe railways with a global future next Monday, 7 March.
As part of the ITF’s sixth annual rail Safety First day unions worldwide will organise activities including:
- Demonstrations and lobbying of the European Parliament Transport Committee in Strasbourg. Trade union delegates will be on board an international train from Brussels via Luxembourg. Events are planned en route. More details (in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish): (See Campaign Alerts Page)
- UK rail union Aslef will be asking passengers to sign a charter for rail safety before holding a ceremony at Euston Station at the memorial to rail accident victims. This will be attended by Glenda Jackson MP and author Nina Bowden, who was widowed by the Potters Bar train crash. More details: www.aslef.org.uk Also in the UK there will be a distribution of postcards organised by the RMT urging the return of railways to public ownership and the end of public private ownership of the London Underground. Followed by a lobby at the Strategic Rail Authority. More details: www.rmt.org.uk ITF General Secretary David Cockroft is invited to both occasions.
- French workers will be hosting the ETF demonstration in Strasbourg- more details www.webtvtown.com (pdf) - as well as participating, along with their Spanish colleagues, in a demo at Cerbere-Port Bou border station, where trains will be halted.
The following are also planned (more details at ITF Rail Campaign )
- Nationwide activities and awareness campaigns in India, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Morocco and Russia.
- A cross border campaign train organised by Austrian and Hungarian unions.
- A cross border meeting by Serbian and Hungarian rail workers.
- Lobbying and protests in favour of safe railways in Romania.
- A 15 minute stoppage from 12:45 to 13:00 in Italy. Trade unionists will then demonstrate in Bologna, near the site of an accident where 17 people were killed on 7 January.
Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF’s Railways Section, commented: “All over the world the concept of safe railways as a vital national resource is under attack. Many rail restructuring plans over the past two decades have failed and have questioned the whole idea of rail as a mode of transport that is both environmentally and socially beneficial. Citizens’ trust in their railways has been undermined as in some cases they have been turned into money generators rather than vital pieces of national infrastructure. The rail action days are the time when those who work on the railways strive to reclaim them for all those who travel and work on them.”
Constantly updated reports of activities during the rail action day can be found at ITF Rail Campaign Page along with the history of the day and its achievements, and downloadable publicity materials.
ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733,
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871.
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Website: www.itfglobal.org
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