SL’s train driver made the threat a reality. Tonight their wild strike ends – now they hope for change. – We have sent a clear signal about what we think about safety and we actually expect Seko to notify us of a strike in May, says train driver Nils Westberg Ahlmark. At 03:00 on Monday, SL’s locomotive drivers began a wild strike, a strike without union support. This has led to extensive canceled departures and disruptions for Stockholm’s commuter train. At midnight the strike ends. – We will go back to our work and make sure that our passengers get to work and home, says train driver Nils Westberg Ahlmark, who participated in the strike. He believes that the train drivers have done their part and that the ball is now in the union’s court. – We will see what the union does in the future and what different parties say and negotiate about. Then we take it from there. “We have warned for a long time” The background to the strike is dissatisfaction with the own trade union Seko and the abolition of train attendants on board, which means that the train drivers are alone on the trains. Instead, more surveillance cameras have been set up. Nils Westberg Ahlmark believes that it is not enough. – The project that has been carried out is more about how the passengers should be accommodated in the best way, but safety has not been looked at enough, he says and continues: – Fundamentally, it is not acceptable that a train driver alone should be responsible for over 1,800 passengers. He is convinced that the strike could not have been avoided. – We have been warning for a very long time and we warned in December that there will be a collapse. And that is the collapse we have seen. SL: “Great uncertainty” SL plans to be able to resume traffic on Thursday. However, problems are expected to remain. – There is still great uncertainty about how many will show up. The train vehicles are also deployed in unfavorable locations, so it is not entirely easy to start up again, says Henrik Palmér, press spokesperson for Trafikförvaltningen SL. However, he emphasizes that it will look different compared to during this week’s strike. – The signals we get are that a large part of the drivers will return. – Our starting point is to find a traffic that works tomorrow. It won’t look like usual, but there will still be a basic structure in the traffic in a completely different way. How long will it take before the trains run as usual again? – If everything goes according to plan, it will be better on Friday. But we still encourage you to visit our website. The disturbances will be presented there and you will be able to read how the traffic is driven, says Henrik Palmér.
t4-general