***Air traffic controllers demonstrate at Parliament over
Brussels, 14/10/2013 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 14 October, air traffic controllers protested in front of the European Parliament against the Single Sky 2+ package and its impact that they fear could deregulate their profession.
Following the appeal made by the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF), 200 of them from ten or so different European countries travelled to Brussels to protest, despite the fact that MEPs on the transport committee (TRAN) are meeting up this Monday. Although member states have already given a frosty welcome to this new European Commission package, particularly Germany and France, traffic controllers are also counting on Parliament to “freeze” these proposals and, “stop the dogmatic liberalisation of the ATM industry” that will have a negative effect on jobs and working conditions. The Political Secretary of the ETF, François Ballestero, explained that “the ETF refuses that the public service role of the ATM industry in Europe is put at risk by unbundling support services, which, in many countries, are part of the core business of the Air Navigation Service Providers”. The ETF also opposes the mandatory separation of supervisory and service provision. It considers that emphasis should be on implementation of the Single Sky 2 package before proceeding to further reform. (MD/trans.fl)
FROM FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL:
***Controllers gather in Brussels to protest SES plans
David Learmount
353 words
15 October 2013
Flight International
FLIGI
935
English
(c) Copyright 2013. Reed Business Information Limited. All rights reserved.
Some 200 employees from 11 European air navigation service providers are protesting outside the European Parliament over planned modernisation of air traffic management.
Some 200 employees from 11 European air navigation service providers are protesting outside the European Parliament over planned modernisation of air traffic management.
Today’s protests, called by the European Transport Workers’ Federation, follow strikes last week by French air traffic controllers.
The ETF is objecting to a package of measures dubbed SES2+ (Single European Sky second phase). These were proposed by the European Commission in June, and in the ETF’s view they amount to “dogmatic liberalisation of the ATM industry” with “little support from the Member States”. Their implementation should be halted by Europe’s parliament, argues the group.
“We oppose a SES based on market principles, top-down approach and cost reductions, which would jeopardise safety and the number and quality of jobs,” says ETF political secretary François Ballestero. “By organising this demonstration, the ETF is signalling that the public-service role of the ATM industry in Europe should not be put at risk by unbundling support services – meteorology, communications, navigation, surveillance, training and aeronautical information services – which, in many countries, are part of the core business of the ANSPs [air navigation service providers].”
The ETF does not believe that a mandatory structural separation between supervisory and service provision is needed. “The real need is to achieve the already existing SES2 package, adopted in 2009, which requires some additional time,” says Riccardo Rubini, chair of the ETF ATM committee. “We also reject a performance scheme dominated by unrealistic targets and forecasts – which destabilises the economic viability of a majority of the ANSPs – and by cost reduction, the main purpose of which is to cut jobs.”
He adds that the ETF is “in favour of a SES that respects and creates jobs, improves the working conditions and maintains the collective agreements”.
ETF affiliates from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia and the UK are participating in the Brussels demonstration.
FROM LE SOIR (BELGIUM):
***Deux cents délégués de la gestion du trafic aérien manifestent devant Parlement européen
Rédaction en ligne
Mis en ligne lundi 14 octobre 2013, 13h15
Mis en ligne lundi 14 octobre 2013, 13h15
Environ 200 délégués de la gestion du trafic aérien (ATM) venus de 11 pays de l’Union européenne ont manifesté lundi devant le Parlement européen à Bruxelles. Ils ont protesté contre le nouveau paquet sur le ciel unique européen (SES), appelé SES2 +, adopté en juin dernier par la Commission européenne et ont appelé le Parlement européen à cesser la libéralisation de l’industrie de l’ATM.
Les délégués syndicaux ATM se sont rassemblés devant le Parlement européen alors que la Commission transport du Parlement examinait le projet de texte « Ciel unique 2+ », qui doit permettre de lutter contre l’encombrement de l’espace aérien européen. Selon eux, ce projet, qui bénéficie de peu de soutien des États membres, vise à libéraliser le contrôle aérien européen sous prétexte de rentabilité économique et de réductions de coûts.
« Nous nous opposons à l’externalisation et la mise en concurrence de nombreux services (Communication, navigation/surveillance, écoles de formation, information aéronautique et météorologique) qui font partie intégrante du contrôle aérien », a expliqué François Ballestero, secrétaire politique de l’ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation). « Nous rejetons également la séparation structurelle entre la fourniture de surveillance et le service. Enfin, nous refusons un système de performance dominé par des objectifs et prévisions qui déstabilisent la viabilité économique de la majorité des Air Service Providers (ANSP) et par la réduction des coûts qui vise principalement à réduire les emplois », a-t-il conclu.
FROM GAZET VAN ANTWERPEN (BELGIUM):
***Beheerders van luchtverkeer betogen voor Europees Parlement
14/10 Buitenland Zo’n tweehonderd afgevaardigden van Air Traffic Management (ATM) uit 11 EU-lidstaten hebben maandag betoogd voor het Europees Parlement in Brussel. Ze protesteerden tegen een nieuw pakket maatregelen omtrent de Single European Sky (SES), dat in juni werd ingevoerd als SES 2+. Het gaat om een update van een pakket bestaande regels, SES 2, uit 2009. De betogers riepen het Europees Parlement op de liberalisering van hun sector te stoppen.
Vakbondsafgevaardigden van ATM verzamelden maandag in Brussel. De transportcommissie van het Europees Parlement besprak er het pakket maatregelen SES 2+, dat de strijd tegen blokkeringen en opstoppingen van het Europese luchtruim moet faciliteren. Volgens de betogers dienen de maatregelen echter tot een liberalisering van de controle van het Europese luchtruim onder het mom van economische rentabiliteit en kostenvermindering.
Uitbesteding en concurrentie
“Wij verzetten ons tegen de uitbesteding en het creëren van concurrentie tussen verschillende diensten (communicatie, navigatie/surveillance, opleiding, informatie over luchtverkeer en het weer) die integraal deel uitmaken van het luchtverkeersbeheer”, zegt François Ballestero, politiek secretaris van het European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF).
“Wij verwerpen eveneens de structurele splitsing tussen de levering van surveillance en andere diensten. Ook gaan we niet mee in een prestatiegericht systeem, gedomineerd door criteria die de economische levensvatbaarheid van de Air Service Providers bedreigen, en door een kostenvermindering die het aantal banen moet beperken”, waarschuwde Ballestero nog.
FROM VOXY (NZ):
***New Zealand fisheries under spotlight of global union campaign
The New Zealand fishing industry is under the spotlight at a major international union meeting on the Asia Pacific fishing industry held in Auckland this week.
The Asia Pacific Fisheries Workshop is being held as part of a global union campaign “From Catcher to Counter.”
The new campaign is aimed at organising fishing workers, improving and standardizing conditions for fishing workers, and developing secure employment opportunities in value added processing in their relevant countries.
The campaign is a joint effort by two global union federations, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the International Union of Food Workers (IUF).
Workers representatives from fisheries, maritime and food processing industries in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea have been joined by senior representatives of the ITF and IUF from the UK and Europe.
The meeting will identify priorities for organising workers in the Asia Pacific region.
The three day meeting also features speakers from the Ministry of Primary Industries, University of Auckland, maritime lawyers, and campaigning groups.
The meeting is hosted by three New Zealand unions, the Maritime Union of New Zealand (ITF affiliate), the Merchant Service Guild (ITF affiliate) and the Service and Food Workers Union (IUF affiliate), who have campaigned to improve conditions and create jobs in the New Zealand fishing and processing industries.
ITF/IUF Fisheries Programme leader Liz Blackshaw says the high profile of labour problems in the New Zealand fishing industry made the meeting a good starting point to work on fishing issues in the Asia Pacific region.
“The effectiveness of recent changes to legislation around the fishing industry has been on the agenda as well as organizing in the wider region.”
FROM THE TIMES (UK):
Cargo ship had ‘known safety problems’
thetimes.co.uk ,
David Brown,
15 October 2013 01:01,
442 words,
English,
TIMEUK,
© 2013 Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved
A cargo ship which sank with the loss of 43 crewmen and more than 28,000 animals had been criticised by safety inspectors twice in the year before the disaster, a secret inquiry report reveals.
The Danny FII capsized while it was waiting with 17,932 cattle and 10,274 sheep off the Lebanese port of Tripoli in December 2009. Just three days before it set sail, authorities in Panama raised concerns about defective hatches in the hull that caused the vessel to sink.
John Milloy, 50, the ship’s master from Campbeltown, Argyll, went down with the converted car ferry as he evacuated the 83 crew, and Alan Atkinson, 50, the electrotechnical officer from Ayr, was broadcasting distress messages when the ship sank.
The Panama Maritime Authority, which regulates a fifth of the world’s merchant ships, has refused to publish its report into the disaster. The Times has seen the 121-page report, which raises concerns about rules for ships converted to carry livestock. It says the Danny FII was given a safety certificate by the Isthmus Bureau of Shipping in Panama 11 days before leaving Montevideo, Uruguay.
The Panama authority and the Bureau of Shipping discussed concerns about the safety of hatches three days before the start of the 24-day voyage. They decided that the ship passed rules for ferries in force when it was launched in 1975 and ruled that the ship did not need to meet new standards after it was converted to carry livestock in 1994, or stricter criteria for ferries introduced in 1987.
Other inspectors had raised concerns 11 times since 1997. In January 2009, authorities in Brazil noted 24 failures, and an inspection in Beirut that August found problems with doors. The report says that the ship probably capsized because hatches and the bow doors were opened for cleaning, but water from hoses made the ship list and let in water. The ship capsized 20 minutes after Mr Milloy stopped the engines and it sank three minutes afterwards.
The report recommends new rules for livestock carriers converted from other ships. Most maritime authorities publish reports immediately so the industry can learn from problems, but officials in Panama have given no reason for the refusal to publish.
Mark Dickinson, the general secretary of Nautilus International, the ships’ officers union, said: “We are utterly appalled that after all this time the report is not publicly available. This was a very major casualty with significant loss of life and there was worrying evidence to suggest the Danny FII had suffered from safety problems before the accident.”