Holy Week rail strike not as disruptive as feared

The Renfe railroad strike which began yesterday has disrupted 54 trains in Andalucia, including mid-distance, high-speed AVE, Avant, and commuter services. Most of the disruption occurs in the morning, rail authorities have said.

According to Renfe estimates, most train service will run normally throughout the nation, including 72% of long distance trains, 65% of AVE and 75% of commuter lines.

Ninety percent of railroad workers in Andalucia were called to strike against Renfe by the rail union CGT. The union is charging that unemployment in the sector is not due to the economy and aims to reject the ‘turn that the labor negotiations are taking’. The union has called the economic reforms that Renfe is taking ‘unfair’ and ‘detrimental to most workers’.

Meanwhile, the chief engineers of AVE have called new strikes from April 11 to June 30 to protest against a new Renfe classification of jobs that they say would eliminate the ‘chief engineer’ professional category.

CGT said that during the strike, union public relations representatives are circulating  in major railway stations under the motto ‘For a public and social railway’.

Renfe, however, said yesterday that worker turnout for the strike was ‘zero’, with only 3 percent of workers. It announced that minimum services to ensure the mobility of citizens are running normally. The railway operator said that it was not experiencing ‘significant’ travel delays.