The union representatives of the tram workers and the Metropolitano de Tenerife company reached an agreement yesterday that put an end to the labor conflict and the strike that had existed on the tram since last February, and in whose negotiations they ended up mediating the Cabildo to advance the dialogue process and reach a resolution.
The agreement reached yesterday contemplates, among its most outstanding points, a commitment to address the substitution of silica sand in the tram braking system, a substance that is considered carcinogenic and whose use the unions have been denounced, and the increase in the template, with new drivers.
The agreement, signed by the three union organizations representing the workers, Metropolitan and responsible for the Cabildo, will be ratified tomorrow by the workers’ assembly.
The acting president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, described the agreement reached as “very good news” and thanked “the involvement and availability of the workforce and the good work of the manager and the Metropolitano team, which, together with the contribution of the Cabildo staff, have joined forces to find meeting points and end the strike”, which had lasted “for a long time and it was necessary to redirect this situation definitively”, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Juan Miguel Suárez, FSC-CC.OO. Secretary of Trade Union Action, highlighted that the agreement was reached “in discount time”, since it was the last day before the new legislature, and that achieving it “has It has been very complicated, it has been four months of negotiations”.
The agreement establishes, as CC.OO. detailed, in terms of occupational safety, the drafting of the text of the regulation of the internal functioning of the safety and health committee, as well as the protocol for prevention and action against violence, workplace harassment, sexual or gender-based and the internal operating regulations of the equality commission.
Likewise, it is agreed to carry out new measurements of exposure to silica sand, with approval of work times with dust and granting of the required hygiene time, adoption of preventive measures in the event of accidental exposures and implementation of technical improvements for the waste cleanup. Similarly, the study entrusted to Alstom will be monitored to study the feasibility of other alternative substances to silica sand and, once verified, steps will be taken to replace them as soon as possible.
In labor matters, regarding the driving service, “the reconciliation of work and family life with the dynamics of the service that had been proposed was impossible” and in the agreement it has been possible to establish “a seven and a half hour day but with four hours continued work”, explained Juan Miguel Suárez.
This also means that it is agreed to propose to the Board of Directors of Metropolitano the increase in the driver workforce by six new places and, if the free service continues, two more will be added, among many other points of the agreement.