AHT Gelditu!
Another worker died yesterday on the AHT-TAV (Basque and Spanish Acronym for High Speed Train, HST) construction site. With him, 13 workers have died in the construction of the AVE in the Basque Country. THESE ARE NOT DEATHS, THEY ARE MURDERS.
Remember: Precarious Work Means Precarious Life!
Here, the full statement of AHT Gelditu! Navarre:
Yesterday, Tuesday, a new death was recorded in the HST works in the Basque Country, more specifically in the Arrazola neighborhood belonging to the town of Atxondo (Bizkaia). The 49-year-old formworker A.H.G. died of blood loss when a piece collapsed on top of him, causing irreparable bleeding. He worked for the company Conprovial (Constructora Proyectos Viales de Colombia), subcontracted by the UTE ATXONDO-ABADIÑO, made up of the companies DRAGADOS and TECSA.
So much for the cold reading of yesterday’s accident recorded by Osalan.
The reading that AHT Gelditu! makes is very different: What happened yesterday in Atxondo is not a death, it is a MURDER caused by:
- The greed of large companies, which, far from worrying about the safety of workers, only seek to obtain the maximum economic benefit from the work. DRAGADOS belongs to the self-proclaimed G-7 of the HST, a conglomerate of 7 companies judged and fined for fraudulently distributing public contracts for the works. These companies should be excluded from these works, as was recorded in the sentence of the case.
- The chain of subcontracts permitted by the institutions, where the biggest loser is the worker of the subcontracted companies who is subjected to the greatest conditions of precariousness, lack of safety, abusive working hours and permanent stress.
- The humiliating and degrading racist treatment received by the workers of this type of macro-infrastructure, who in most cases are migrants in a situation of great vulnerability. How is it possible that, as in most of the previous deaths, we only know the initials of the deceased person, without really knowing who he is and where he comes from?
- The irresponsibility of the administrations, both state and regional, which do not supervise as they should the safety of works with a high accident rate, hiding practices of exploitation and labor imprudence, looking the other way in total connivance with the companies.
- The generalized irrationality of the most destructive, wasteful and antisocial project in the history of the Basque Country, in the midst of a global eco-social crisis.
As we denounced a few months ago based on testimonies from different workers on the HST works, the working conditions that are given in the construction of this infrastructure – which constantly endangers the life and health of the workers – remind us of the conditions of slavery that should have been eradicated a long time ago. We firmly believe that megalomaniacal infrastructures like the HST would not be possible without the conditions of exploitation of the working class that executes them and whose maximum expression is the 13 work-related deaths recorded in the HST works in the Basque Country.
For all this and much more, we once again demand the immediate halt of the HST works in the Basque Country.
In that regard, we remind you that the next demonstration against the high-speed train (TAV) will be next Saturday the 31st in Altsasu (Navarre) (at 12:30, from the town hall) against the surveys being carried out in that area to connect the Basque with the Navarre high-speed train.
AHT Gelditu! has been denouncing the labor situation in the TGV works for some time. For this specific reason (in addition to the many others for which the TGV is socially and ecologically rejected) a massive demonstration was held on February 15 in Iruña. A series of videos were also made, one of which specifically denounced the labor accident rate of this mega-infrastructure:
In its call for the demonstration of February 15, AHT Gelditu said:
«(the works of this macro-infrastructure) are one of the greatest exponents of 21st-century slavery. But the HST not only enslaves the workers who build it, but also the rest of the working class who are forced to finance it, while their living conditions progressively deteriorate. The HST only benefits the enslavers who impose it: the construction companies, the banks and the corrupt political class. The so-called progress, whose maximum expression was the TGV, has led to the current eco-social crisis that is leading humanity to civilizational collapse. Faced with this dramatic situation, AHT Gelditu! urges us to break the chains of progress that enslave and destroy us.»
Old story
Seven years ago, Argia journalist Urko Apaolaza carried out an investigation into labor situations in the TAV construction sites, reflected in a book, ‘Zuloan’, and a blog in which he updated all the complaints. This work was carried out in collaboration with the Robles-Ajangiz Foundation and the ELA union.
Obviously, as the sections of the Basque Y have been completed, these negligences and abuses have been decreasing, but they persist because there are still sections to be completed, as well as access to stations, new stations and adaptations of existing ones. For its part, in Navarre is where many sections still remain to be completed and where most of the complaints currently come from.
