Railworkers worldwide organize special day to promote safety

Railworkers around the world organized a huge range of activities March 29th as part of a special day for railway safety called for by the International Transport Workers Federation.

Several hundred thousand people took part in the activities across 39 countries in all five continents. The planned events ranged from exhibitions, fare cuts, cross-border meetings, steam train rides, open days and station clean-ups, stoppages, and mass demonstrations.

In Canada, rail workers planned a mass fax campaign to government.

“Railways are one of the most ecological, and traidionally, the safest ways to travel or land, but around the world this is threatened by privatisation, staff cuts and the erosion of the public service ethic that used to govern them,” said David Cockroft, general secretary of the ITF.