SFM suspends strikes — but the safety question remains open

SFM suspends strikes — but the safety question remains open

The announced work stoppages at Mallorca's rail company SFM have been called off for the time being. After a meeting yesterday between employee representatives and management, it was agreed to continue negotiations on safety measures; the next round is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. The works council insists, among other things, on its own safety committee to systematically record and evaluate incidents and accidents. If negotiations result in vague promises — as happened before when an agreement in medical transport only brought temporary calm — strikes could be resumed at any time.

Key question

Is suspending the strikes — without binding, verifiable steps — enough to restore the confidence of commuters and staff?

Critical analysis

The situation is typical: on one hand the relief in the early morning when trains run again and the area in front of the Estació Intermodal in Palma slowly fills with commuters. On the other hand, the substantive confrontation remains unresolved. A meeting and new appointment dates are important, but it is not uncommon for declarations of intent to be followed by lengthy processes without visible improvements; this pattern appears elsewhere, notably in the bus strike in Mallorca, where talks repeatedly stalled. The demand for a safety committee sounds plausible and is not an end in itself — it aims at transparent data collection and learning processes. What matters is how quickly and with what binding quality such mechanisms are implemented.

What is missing from the public debate

The debate too often revolves around the strike as an event, not the causes. There is a lack of clear information about which specific safety problems are recurring: are they signal failures, staff shortages at peak times, unclear deployment plans or outdated vehicles? Nor is there enough discussion about timelines and responsibilities: who is supposed to collect data, who has access, and how are findings translated into changed procedures? Without this clarity much remains symbolic politics — a problem that also surfaced during the open-ended lifeguard strike and in warnings about services in other sectors, such as the strike warning in the public service.

A daily scene from Palma

In the early morning, when the streets around the Carrer de la Pau in Palma are still wet from the night rain and the loudspeakers of the Estació announce departures at regular intervals, you can feel the system's vulnerability. Commuters with shopping bags, construction workers in yellow vests, older residents with walkers — they all rely on punctual trains. When SFM employees are unsettled, this quickly shows in the city: a train is canceled and the queues at the bus stop stretch back to the Plaça d'Espanya.

Concrete solutions

To turn the current ceasefire into a sustainable solution, I propose six concrete steps: 1) Establish a safety committee with representatives from employees, management and external experts; 2) Build an anonymized, standardized incident database accessible to authorized parties; 3) Set firm deadlines for implementing initial measures (e.g. three weeks for immediate actions, three months for structural changes); 4) Publish regular, publicly available progress reports in plain language; 5) Conduct independent interim audits by external auditors; 6) Improve internal communication with clear points of contact for staff and passengers.

Why these steps really help

A committee without clear tasks remains a paper tiger; data without access control does not help. Only if incidents are systematically recorded, analyzed and translated into concrete changes can risk be reduced. External audits create credibility, deadlines generate pressure and transparency calms passengers — because they can see that talk is followed by action.

Pointed conclusion

Suspending the strikes is a pause for breath, not the end of the conflict. For commuters on Mallorca this is good — temporarily. In the long term, calm on the tracks depends on concrete, verifiable steps. Management and the works council are now responsible: a safety committee, a clean incident statistic and binding deadlines would be a good start. If these things do not succeed, the next strike announcement would not be a surprise, but a logical consequence.