Renfe Deal Restores Driver Rosters to End a Week of Rodalies Chaos

Renfe signed an agreement with unions on Friday that restores the old shift rosters for Rodalies train drivers, ending a dispute that caused seven days in a row of delays and cancellations across Catalonia. The new roster takes effect on Sunday, so commuters could see service start to recover from then, El País reported.

The deal does not cancel the next strike. A Renfe strike is still called for Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Why drivers starting at Sants caused delays everywhere

For years, informal agreements between Renfe and the unions let drivers begin and end their working day at the outer terminals of Rodalies lines, such as Mataró, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Terrassa or Sant Vicenç de Calders. A driver living in one of those towns could step straight onto the train they were due to drive. Changeovers in the middle of a route were easier, and some drivers were picked up by taxi near home.

When those agreements were broken, Renfe went back to the official service rosters, which make Barcelona-Sants the only base for its Rodalies drivers in Barcelona. Drivers then had to report to Sants and travel from there to their trains, sometimes by taxi to terminals tens of kilometres away. When one driver finished a shift and the replacement had not yet reached the station, that train waited, along with every train behind it.

Drivers also began carrying out technical checks very strictly. Some brake tests need two drivers, and some trains need extra checks on their public address systems. El País says these checks were stretched out, causing widespread delays.

How the week unfolded

• Nov. 2: Renfe and the drivers’ union Semaf discussed calling off strikes set for Nov. 10 and 12 (the second was later moved to Nov. 17). With no deal, Semaf broke the labour agreements it had with the company.
• About 72 hours later: Renfe announced the return to the official rosters, with drivers based at Sants.
• Saturday, Nov. 7: The new rosters started. Renfe reported delays and cancellations due to an “operational incident” on the R1, R2, R2 Nord, R2 Sud and R4 lines and southern regional trains.
• Sunday and Monday: Disruption continued and on Monday spread to almost the whole network. Rodalies director Òscar Playà said some drivers had judged certain trains unfit to run and that there had been sick leave since Saturday.
• Tuesday, Nov. 10: First official Semaf strike day, with dozens of services cancelled. Renfe said minimum services were not met.
• Wednesday: A general strike left Rodalies with no trains for more than ten hours.
• Thursday: No strike, but delays and cancellations went on. Playà said it was hard to find enough taxis to take drivers from Sants to the terminals.
• Friday: Delays again across the network. Renfe signed a truce with UGT, SMAF and CCOO bringing back the previous roster.

What the unions say

A Semaf spokesperson said the old arrangements rested on give-and-take between staff and company, summed up as “I give you flexibility in exchange for another”. Without that flexibility, he said, not all services can be covered. He noted that Madrid has several driver bases while Barcelona has only Sants, and that trains in Madrid did not suffer the same delays.

Elisabeth Ramos of the CGT union blamed Semaf for breaking the agreements and called the drivers’ strict checks “a work-to-rule strike”. She said the arrangements should have been written into the official rules so they could not be reversed against workers.

Source: El País