Train drivers at ScotRail will refuse to work on new carriages if a Spanish company with links to illegal Israeli settlements wins the contract to build them, the drivers' union has announced.
The protest follows reports that Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), a Basque-based firm operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, is on a shortlist to provide at least 69 new electric and battery-electric trains. CAF has been named by the United Nations Human Rights Office on its database of organisations involved in unlawful settlements in the West Bank, and is involved in the construction and maintenance of Jerusalem's light rail system.
Union pledges to refuse CAF trains
ASLEF, the train drivers' union, has said its drivers will not work on trains provided to nationalised ScotRail by CAF. The action has been compared to the East Kilbride Rolls Royce workers who refused to work on Chilean Air Force parts from 1974 to 1978 due to the atrocities committed in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, a campaign that was the subject of the award-winning Nae Pasaran documentary in 2018.
Kevin Lindsay, ASLEF's Scottish organiser, told the Sunday Mail: "Scotland's train drivers have always stood against injustice wherever it happens. Internationalism and standing for human rights, and for an end to illegal wars, oppression and suffering across the world has always been at the heart of our trade unionism. Such as when train drivers refused to transport munitions to the catastrophic war against Iraq."
Union criticises Scottish Government
Lindsay added: "We have a long-standing commitment to standing up for Palestine. We have supported the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement for many years. The genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank has made our support even stronger."
He said the Scottish Government could and should remove CAF from the bidding process, but has "hidden behind a process that shows Scotland in an all talk no action light." Lindsay referenced the East Kilbride workers' refusal to move Pinochet's air force jet engines, which gave "a huge political and moral boost to the Chileans suffering under Pinochet."
Petition launched
The Scottish Government has adopted a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions position against Israel but has been criticised for failing to implement it. A petition has been launched by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign urging people to write to Scottish Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn and ScotRail's managing director, demanding they exclude the Spanish firm.
A spokesman for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "We totally support this action by train drivers to refuse to drive trains if they are purchased from this company which is massively involved in the violation of Palestinian rights."
Colette Ricketts, ScotRail Director of Strategy and Business Planning, said: "This is an ongoing procurement, and we are committed to a thorough evaluation process." A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "Our guidance stipulates that companies who are exploiting assets in illegal settlements can be excluded from tender exercises for grave professional misconduct. In law, that decision rests with the public body awarding the contract, based on the evidence available to it."
