PAME Secretariat expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims of the unspeakable tragedy in Tempe, Larissa and calls on the government to intensify its efforts to locate the missing persons, to provide full support to the injured and the families of the victims.
The criminal responsibility of the government for the head-on collision between the two trains that left dozens of dead cannot be hidden behind promises to find the causes.
The causes lie in the policy of commercialisation and privatisation of the railways that the SYRIZA government started in 2017, when it sold TRAINOSE to Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group for 45 million euros, even giving it a premium of 250 million euros. A contract that was ratified by the government of the New Democracy in July 2022, resulting in the Italian company pocketing 750 million euros for 15 years, running the “barren line Athens-Thessaloniki!!!
These are decisions that reinforce privatisations at the expense of the interests and life of the people. They are in defence of the profits of multinationals, investors and those who exploit infrastructure that the people have paid dearly for. It is in the line of maintaining and worsening the working conditions of workers who pay for non-existent health and safety measures with their own lives.
All those who sold OSE-Greek Railways instead of arming it with modern safety systems, leaving the Greek railways with few workers, without proper training, specialisation and certification, must now answer. Those are all the governments that have devalued infrastructure projects instead of completing them, without maintenance and repairs necessary for their safe operation. Who threw into the dustbin the agonizing warnings of workers about all of the above over time.
We note that a few days before the new, unspeakable tragedy, PAME trade unionists warned that the decisions of the last governments were responsible not only for all the accidents that have occurred, but also for those that were bound to follow.
The working class of our country, through its trade unions, can and will intervene decisively so that not only will the real responsibilities be attributed to the anti-peoples policies and its representatives, but will continue with greater vigour the struggle so that no one is crippled and loses his life in the 21st century for the profits of a handful of parasites who are indifferent to the life and well-being of the people.
We are fighting for safe, public and cheap rail transport, against the privatisation policy that considers human life as a cost.
We call on all Trade Unions to take part in the mobilization organized on the initiative of the Regional Trade Union Centre of Piraeus on Thursday 2 March at 6 pm, outside the offices of Hellenic Train.
