All union organizations of the French National Railway Company (SNCF) called on Monday, November 25, for railway workers to go on strike starting December 11 at 7 p.m., mainly to demand a moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF and protest against the terms of opening regional lines to competition.
The railway group unions “They ask the government to call without delay a tripartite negotiation meeting if it wants to avoid a strike”write the federations of the CGT-Cheminots, the UNSA-Ferroviaire, the SUD-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots in a joint press release, while the first day of mobilization organized on Thursday had a moderate participation. “The demand for a moratorium on the discontinuity process [de Fret SNCF] It is more relevant than ever »estimates the interunion.
For the moment, the government has refused to grant this request. “Neither the French who work nor the French who want to gather for the end of year holidays can legitimately accept a strike that is not justified taking into account the progress we have made in the freight transport sector, the social progress that it also offers the SNCF group »declared the Minister of Transport, François Durovray.
Negotiation margin
“It is unthinkable and irresponsible to liquidate an important public actor essential for the decarbonization of transportation”unions deplore, while Fret SNCF, the French leader in rail freight transport, must disappear on 1Ahem January for the benefit of two new subsidiaries, in exchange for a weight loss cure.
The five hundred non-contracted railway workers (out of a total of five thousand) will be reclassified in other group companies, SNCF promised. But the unions want to believe that there is room for negotiation with the new European executive and, in particular, with Teresa Ribera, commissioner responsible for ecological transition and competition.
The dismantling of Fret SNCF was due to the opening of an investigation by the European Commission into illegal public aid and was negotiated by the French government to avoid prosecution.
“Dogmatic choice”
The inter-union is also concerned about the transfer of twelve hundred railway workers to group subsidiaries in December, where the regional train market (TER) was opened to competition. “It is a dogmatic choice assumed by the president, [Jean-Pierre] Farandou, with the aim of preserving the margins of the SNCF to the detriment of the social achievements of railway workers”say the unions, who fear a review of the rules that govern the organization of working time.
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Finally they ask for a “multi-annual programming law” finance network maintenance and “develop the transport of goods and passengers”.
Thursday’s mobilization day, presented as a “ultimatum” posed to the government and the SNCF management, it was followed by a quarter of railway workers. This time, the unions are threatening a renewed strike if their demands are not met.
