The mixed company that must manage Rodalies has not yet been created, but the Government and the Generalitat are already making joint decisions. So much so that the agreement put on the table by the Ministry of Transport to the unions of Renfei Adif to call off the strike against the transfer of Rodalies had the prior approval of the president of the Generalitat.
The newly appointed Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, revealed yesterday to RAC1 that he had spoken with Pere Aragonès on Thursday before meeting with the unions. “I explained the situation to him and I received his approval”, assured Puente, who does not see any contradiction between what was included in Sánchez’s investiture pact between the PSOE and ERC and the agreement for the cancellation of the strike
Although on the political playing field anything is possible, the truth is that, technically, while the political document sealed two weeks ago talks about the transfer of staff to the new mixed company Rodalies de Catalunya “segregated from Renfe Viajeros”, the cancellation on strike with the company committee reaffirms the “guarantee of integrity of the Renfe and Adif group, maintaining its staff and its operation”.
The interpretations depend on how one wants to see the glass and for now everyone wants to be optimistic. “The agreement with the unions says what it says but it cannot leave without effect a political agreement of investiture, I am convinced that the minister is not breaking an agreement”, assured the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, during a conference in Infrastructure Circle, where he insisted that “Renfe will cease to be the operator with guarantees for workers and their labor mobility”.
The minister, for his part, dispelled any possible doubts: “What we have agreed is simply to comply with the law, we will not commit any disloyalty in the relationship with our partners”.
The good political understanding expressed by the two parties to ensure that the transfer of Rodalies goes ahead will force us to explore very imaginative formulas that allow the creation of the new mixed company to be married with the maintenance of the workers within Renfe, that is to say, the squaring of the circle to please everyone.
In this regard, the Councilor of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, defined in an interview with La 2 and Ràdio 4 the future transfer as “orderly” and assured that “no one should suffer or get nervous”. At the moment, a few days of institutional and labor truce are coming. The unions have given a deadline of December 15 to activate the work groups and if something does not convince them they will call another strike.
