{"id":192069,"date":"2025-03-28T19:05:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=61154"},"modified":"2025-03-28T19:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:05:55","slug":"there-are-social-conflicts-and-social-uneasiness-in-the-european-rail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=192069","title":{"rendered":"There are \u2018social conflicts\u2019 and \u2018social uneasiness\u2019 in the European rail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The rail freight industry is currently experiencing a variety of challenges. One of them revolves around its ageing workforce and their working conditions, another one is the state of state-owned operators. Railway workers from the European Transport Workers&#8217; Federation (ETF) trade union took the matter to Brussels, bringing concrete demands to ensure the crucial role of rail.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-61154\"><\/span>ETF organised \u2018From the Tracks to Brussels\u2019, an opportunity for a dialogue between workers and policymakers. The union\u2019s General Secretary Livia Spera described the current situation as characterised by \u201csocial conflicts\u201d and \u201csocial uneasiness\u201d, where \u201cnational conflicts risk becoming European ones\u201d.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/humaninterest\/2025\/03\/24\/moldovan-railway-workers-threaten-to-block-ukrainian-grain-transit\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/241605-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/humaninterest\/2025\/03\/24\/moldovan-railway-workers-threaten-to-block-ukrainian-grain-transit\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">Moldovan railway workers threaten to block Ukrainian grain transit<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>\u2018Working conditions cannot worsen\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>In order to improve things, a motivated workforce is vital, as policymakers pointed out. \u201cWorking conditions and wages cannot go down if EU countries want to attract young talent to the industry\u201d, said Kristian Schmidt, Director of Land Transport at DG MOVE. The average age of railway workers in many EU countries is quite high, and the rate of retirement is higher than the one for recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, there are fewer and fewer railway workers in many member states, and something needs to be done if the issue is to be solved. Other industry experts underlined the importance of union negotiations rights and recording working hours digitally to ensure safety standards.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/business\/2025\/02\/17\/db-and-evg-sign-agreement-for-new-collective-bargaining-agreement\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/EVG-accepting-CBA-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/business\/2025\/02\/17\/db-and-evg-sign-agreement-for-new-collective-bargaining-agreement\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">DB and EVG sign deal for new collective bargaining agreement<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>\u2018State aid guidelines are causing stagnation\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Another issue addressed at the ETF event was the state of publicly-owned rail freight operators. From France to Germany and Poland, these companies are facing massive restructurings to avoid heavy sanctions from European institutions. Moreover, the EU is pushing for the liberalisation of the rail sector, something that ETF is not very fond of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRelying on private investors without strong regulatory oversight could erode public rail\u2019s social function\u201d, said a representative from DB Cargo. Other speakers added that the pressure from the EU when it comes to state aid rules are threatening the very survival of the industry\u2019s largest players. Spera concluded by claiming that the current \u201cEU\u2019s state aid guidelines that prioritise competition over transport needs\u201d will lead to a continuation of stagnation for rail freight.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/business\/2025\/03\/17\/french-port-and-dock-workers-union-call-off-72-hour-strike\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/CGT-worker-Marseille-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/business\/2025\/03\/17\/french-port-and-dock-workers-union-call-off-72-hour-strike\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">French port and dock workers union call off 72-hour strike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"highlight\">\n<h2>RailFreight Summit 2025<\/h2>\n<p>The issue of working conditions, staff shortages and privatisation of rail freight will all be topics covered during the upcoming RailFreight Summit, to be held in Gda\u0144sk, Poland, on 8 and 9 April 2025. The focus of the event will be on the synergies between ports and railways in Europe, with a spotlight on terminal operations and the latest and more important technologies. Find out more about the programme <a href=\"https:\/\/events.railfreight.com\/railfreight-summit-2025\/programme-2025\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and get your ticket <a href=\"https:\/\/events.railfreight.com\/railfreight-summit-2025\/register\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rail freight industry is currently experiencing a variety of challenges. One of them revolves around its ageing workforce and their working conditions, another one\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8304,16113,336,47],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-192069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-etf","category-european-transport-workers-federation","category-policy","category-rail-news","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192070,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192069\/revisions\/192070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}