https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1305/S00067/unions-stop-jeopardizing-jobs-in-european-sky.htm
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Unions: Stop Jeopardizing Jobs In European Sky |
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ETF organises
European Action Day on 12 June to demand a social dimension
inside the Single European Sky
Today,
Tuesday 30 April 2013, the European Transport Workers’
Federation (ETF) announced that Air Traffic Management (ATM)
employees are mobilising for a European Action Day on 12
June 2013 to demand the establishment of a fair, cooperative
and social Single European Sky (SES). Air Traffic Control
Officers (ATCOs) and the entire ATM staff will hold parallel
walkouts, rallies, meetings and strikes across Europe
calling on the European Commission to stop a never ending
process of liberalisation, deregulation and cost cutting in
the ATM industry.
In the course of next summer,
the Commission intends to propose a new package called SES2+
based on market principles, top-down approach and cost
reductions, which would jeopardize safety and the number and
quality of jobs.
François
Ballestero, ETF Political Secretary states:
“The ATM staff is suffering from a performance scheme
dominated by a never-ending cost reduction and in which
safety is not considered to be the first priority. The
Commission intends to unbundle what they call
‘ancillary services’, which are sometimes the
core of the industry, with the risk of creating a new
fragmentation of the European sky. ETF rejects this
dogmaticapproach, which doesn’t take into account the
public service role of the ATM
sector.”
Initially, the ETF supported the
idea of the Single European Sky (SES) and has taken various
initiatives, including via social dialogue, to make it work.
However, today the pressure put on workers is becoming
unacceptably high and the ETF will oppose any new package in
which the social aspects of the SES are not properly
addressed.
“If we oppose a unique model of
Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs), it is because we believe
that the FABs must be based on strong cooperation and a
bottom-up approach”, says Riccardo
Rubini, Chair of the ETF ATM Committee. “We
also ask the Commission to make the ‘human factor
pillar’ binding in the future legislation. We are in
favour of a SES that respects the jobs, the working
conditions and the existing collective agreements. The ETF
calls all ATM workers in Europe to join the Action Day on 12
June 2013”.
ENDS