The Spanish Rail Engine Drivers' Union (Semaf) has assessed "positively" the "change of tone" and the "willingness" to reach agreements shown by the first vice president and minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo. However, the group will wait to see whether the commitments are made real and, for the time being, it understands that this shift is not enough to call off the strike convened at Renfe for the days 10 and 12 of November.
"We continue with the mobilizations," its general secretary, Diego Martín, said in statements to the media after leaving the meeting held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility with Cuerpo, who has temporarily taken over this portfolio after the resignation of Óscar Puente.
Martín explained that the Executive has provided them with "a lot of documentation and a lot of legal text" and regulations with measures aimed at developing the agreement signed in February, which "directly affects the safety of the entire rail system." These are proposals linked to procedures, protocols, weather alerts, just culture, or continuous driving, aimed at responding to the risks that professionals had already communicated.
Even so, the union leader has opted for caution regarding whether the "expectations" will be met and whether the initiatives will be carried out, and has considered it unworkable that they could be approved before the dates set for the work stoppages.
"For the moment they have shown willingness to negotiate on all matters; they have not drawn any red line; we also see the change at the end of the position in the negotiation. We had been six months without any kind of news on many matters and now, in 24 hours, they have given us information on several and we assess that development positively, but right now it is not enough to be able to call off the stoppages," Semaf's spokesperson said.
The union official added that they must study all the information received calmly: "We have to analyze an enormous amount of documentation, an enormous number of legal texts, and we have to read it carefully, because in the end it is a huge amount of information that they have provided to us today, which means we cannot really assess whether all the demands that we put on the table are met or not and we will see whether they do. Obviously, these are matters that in the end benefit all users, all workers," he stressed to reporters.
"The change in attitude is obvious, but it will have to materialize," he stressed. "We have already lived through similar situations, but we understand that in the end it is the work that validates whoever puts it on the table, and so in the end we will see in the coming weeks what is carried out," he said.
When asked whether new meetings with Carlos Cuerpo will be held, he clarified that they are "the invited party" and not the "caller," and he said they will remain attentive to whether "sufficient progress" occurs to justify another meeting.
The meeting also included representatives of CCOO and UGT from the rail sector, as well as Semaf.
Earlier this Thursday, Cuerpo and Semaf's spokespersons had already held a first meeting at the Ministry of Transport, which the union defined as a "first round of contact" in which "no progress" was recorded "on the demands" of the train drivers.
The Government talks about concrete progress and highlights the attitude of the unions
From the First Deputy Prime Minister's Office, sources consulted maintain that during the meeting "concrete progress" took place and they assure that Carlos Cuerpo "has put solutions on the table to address unions' claims on safety matters."
They also described the meeting with the trade union organizations as "very productive" and thanked the "constructive attitude" shown by all the parties present.
Lastly, they point out that the parties have been asked to "urgently close in the coming days the details" of the proposed regulations put forward.