In a 24-hour nationwide strike the unions proceed on Thursday, September 26 SEP TRAINOSE and PEP TRAINOSE, requesting, among other things, immediate recruitment, replacement of rolling stock with modern tracks on a par with European railways as well as completion of infrastructure projects and transport safety on the railway network.

With their announcement they point out that “the tragic accident in Tempe, where 11 of our colleagues were among the 57 people who lost their lives, highlighted the perennial problems faced by railway workers and its abandonment by the state”.

“The Hellenic Train unions four months ago submitted a series of proposals for the safety of staff and passengers and suspended the mobilizations that we had announced to give time to the new management to deal with them”, they state in the announcement and add: “despite the managerial executives stated that safety would be first in their priorities, despite their assurances of immediate, medium and long-term interventions, the problems remain here and make it difficult for our colleagues to work smoothly and safely”.

The entire announcement of the unions is as follows:

“The tragic accident in Tempe, where 11 of our colleagues were among the 57 people who lost their lives, highlighted the perennial problems faced by us railway workers and its abandonment by the state.

After all, the government also admitted that in our country the railway projects and the systems related to the safe transport of passengers and goods, were significantly delayed (contract 717 etc.) due to the constant changes, extensions and government interventions.

Unfortunately, shortly before the completion of the installation and operation of these safety systems (Signalling- remote control- communication) we experienced the catastrophic storm Daniel, which destroyed a large part of the railway network, while creating multiple problems in the movement of passengers and goods, as well as the orderly operation of the Hellenic train, with the workers bearing the greater burden than their share.

Problems that after a year and a half since the day of the accident and the natural disaster remain, while many of them, concerning the OSE and the Hellenic train, are perpetuated and bogged down. The non-completion of the undergrounding of the line in Athens after 17 years, the delay in the completion of the works at the Larissa station, the complete lack of modern means of dealing with delinquent passengers, the tragic state of the engine room facilities, the lack of valuable modern rolling stock and above all the TRAGIC LACK OF STAFF, highlight the absence of planning in the operation of the companies, the absence of a government plan, the long-term abandonment of the Railway, the random and planned changes of all governments, which are responsible for the chaos of inconsistency, as well as the closing of the 1 /3 of the railway network, brought the railway to the tragic situation that we who work on it experience and of course the discredit of the train to the passenger public.

The privatization of TRAINOSE and then of ESSTY for a very small price, which supposedly would work beneficially, proved in practice to be another wrong political choice, the results of which are visible to the naked eye.

Aged rolling stock, lack of spare parts, understaffing of the technical base, lack of modern mechanical equipment, outdated facilities and a number of other problems advocate in our estimation.

Despite the 65 million euros/year of state subsidy, the workers and especially the citizens-passengers of the medium do not enjoy modern European-level transport.

The responsibilities for this tragic situation, however, are attributed and burdened to all the governments and the appointed administrations that managed the fortunes of the country and the railway, which despite the billions of European and national resources, its reliability in transport, is at the lowest point from start of operation.

Today, on the one hand, we recognize the effort of the OSE to speed up the works of restoring the railway infrastructure and the operation of the safety systems, just as we also recognize the good intentions of the new management of Hellenic train to deal with the serious problems bequeathed to it by its predecessors, but on the other hand, we find that the option of outsourcing work such as the clearing of trees and other materials on the line by OSE, as well as the outsourcing of technical work due to lack of staff by Hellenic train, did not restore the problems and the credibility of the companies towards the passenger public.

In short, good intentions alone are not capable of solving the reliability and safety issues… They need immediate interventions, serious investments in personnel and rolling stock!

After all, we all know very well that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”!!!

Hellenic train unions four months ago we tabled a series of proposals for the safety of staff and passengers and suspended the mobilizations we had announced to give time to the new management to deal with them.

Although the managers stated that safety would be first in their priorities, despite their assurances of immediate, medium and long-term interventions, the problems remain here and make it difficult for our colleagues to work smoothly and safely.

Following all of the above mentioned and following the events of the last few days, our unions, in an extraordinary meeting of their Boards of Directors, have UNANIMOUSLY decided to announce a 24-hour nationwide railway strike on Thursday, September 26 with the following demands: a) Immediate recruitment of staff so that to stop the intensification of work

b) Immediate actions and implementation of the union’s proposals for the safety of passengers and workers

c) Immediate actions and implementation of the union’s proposals to deal with criminal behavior on trains as well as at stations

d) Replacement of the rolling stock with modern trains on a par with European railways – Our passengers deserve the best!

e) To immediately give the PPE (Means of personal protection)

f) To advance the training of train drivers and technicians in all rolling stock

g) Establish the continuous training of technicians and train attendants

h) Immediate actions for the modernization of the facilities and machines in the workshops

i) Completion of infrastructure projects and transport safety in the railway network

For all the above requests we require a clear implementation schedule.

Dear passengers, colleagues

This mobilization concerns ALL of us, it concerns ALL of you!

The safety of passengers and employees is above all for us!”