photo: Maersk/Spanish train drivers to go on eight-day strike from the end of this week
Maersk has warned its customers of possible disruptions to rail services in Spain in the next two weeks due to a train driver strike.
Maersk expects that "rail container traffic will be very problematic between September 30th and October 12th."
The Spanish news agency Spanish News previously reported that the national railway workers union SEMAF, of which 85% of the country's machinists are members, called for an eight-day strike on September 30, followed by October 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11 and 12. The strike is intended to force the national railway operator RENFE to fulfill its obligations undertaken back in 2007. The union is urging RENFE to step up recruitment to address staff shortages and re-establish suspended routes.
Union leaders estimate that RENFE now needs at least 150 additional machinists. The union says that under the terms of the 2016 agreement, RENFE is committed to employing an additional 500 drivers, but has only hired 400 so far. Deteriorating working conditions are increasingly forcing drivers to leave for another job, which aggravates the shortage, forcing the operator to increasingly reduce the geography of service.
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