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Massive changes in the structure and ownership of railway undertakings worldwide have taken place in recent years. There has been widespread privatisation of railways, usually accompanied by huge job losses, and political pressure has intensified for the institutional separation of the management and/or ownership of train operations from infrastructure.

Different models of change are being promoted in different regions of the world. In Europe, the European Union is forcing through legislation on the institutional separation of operations and infrastructure, with access to infrastructure to be opened up to competition.

The World Bank, on the other hand, which remains highly influential in restructuring the publicly-owned railways in Africa, Asia and Latin America, has tended to push for a model of ‘concessioning' of railways to private interests over a 20-30 year period, but with the retention of a vertically-integrated structure.

The Railway Workers' Section is active at all levels not only to protect members' jobs, particularly in the face of contracting-out of work, but also to safeguard the integrity of railway networks.

The Section Conference in November 1997 re-affirmed the ITF's strong commitment to public ownership of the railways.

Two main principles form the basis of the section's policies and activities:

defending vertical integration as the preferred structure of railway networks; and,
insisting that competition between modes of transport is subject to full internalisation of external costs.

An important consequence of the fragmentation and/or privatisation of certain former publicly-owned networks has been the establishment of a growing number of multinational rail operators.

The section is very conscious of the need to respond to this development in reviewing its structure and working procedures. The activities in Australia of one of these companies, Wisconsin Central, suggest that established trade union rights are very much under threat.

The Australian government commenced a process of selling off railway operations early in 1998. Purchasers, including Wisconsin Central of the USA and SERCO/Anglia Railways of Great Britain, have imposed individual contracts of employment on workers transferred or re-employed in place of existing railway industry awards (collective agreements). In support of the Public Transport Union, the section has intervened with the foreign companies demanding that they respect proper procedures and recognise established trade union rights. However, the problems remain to be resolved.

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