Today marks the beginning of the European Mobility Week, the European Commission’s flagship awareness-raising campaign on the sustainable urban mobility. Over 1518 towns and cities across Europe are participating in this year’s campaign, including car-free days in cities such as Brussels and Paris.
This year’s theme for the Mobility Week is “Mobility for Everyone”, underlining that while public transport is essential for our everyday lives, many people face barriers to getting around due to high costs, poor connectivity, or a lack of accessibility.
But without public transport workers, there can be no mobility for anyone.
This week, ETF pays tribute to the millions of urban public transport workers who keep Europe moving, and urgently calls for measures to protect their health and wellbeing.
Public transport workers work around the clock across Europe to ensure that Europeans can get to work or education, visit friends and family, and access culture and leisure. It is a testament to these essential workers that the vast majority of the billions of daily trips take place safely and securely. Every day of the year, public transport workers assist elderly people, people with disabilities, and people with young children access transport services. In Europe’s tourist centres, they guide visitors through unfamiliar networks. If the worst comes to pass, they are the frontline responders to emergencies, always putting the safety and security of passengers first.
However, urban public transport workers are not being adequately supported in their critical jobs. Across Europe, violence against workers remains unacceptably high. Overwork and unrealistic work schedules are driving stress and burnout. Labour shortages and cuts to staffing mean that there are fewer workers responsible for the safety ever increasing passenger numbers. Liberalisation of public transport, which sees collective mobility not as a public service but a market for profit, is harming public transport workers and passengers alike.
ETF’s position is clear: high-quality services for all passengers is only possible with high-quality employment for workers.
Notably, this European Mobility Week ETF is calling on policymakers and public transport employers to:
- Tackle violence, through better security for workers and stronger action against perpetrators
- Increased operational budgets, to improve conditions and bring staffing numbers to safe levels
- Engage in meaningful social dialogue with UPT unions, especially on critical issues like digitalisation, electrification, and labour shortages
- Recognise public transport as a public service, and assign it the necessary political attention
