This is a final stance against the latest consequences of the law of a new railway pact approved in 2018, at the beginning of Emmanuel Macron’s first term and, above all, against the opening of the railway to competition. The four SNCF unions call a strike on Thursday, November 21 and are considering repeating the strike starting on the afternoon of December 11.
The 2018 law certainly relieved SNCF of 35 billion euros of debt, but also transformed SNCF’s public industrial and commercial establishment into a public limited company (SA). This SA, 100% owned by the State, is in turn a shareholder in numerous companies, including Fret SNCF, all of which are independently managed.
For the CGT, the UNSA, SUD-Rail and the CFDT, this “balkanization” of a once strong and unified group weakens its cohesion and commitment on the ground. “We are mobilizing for the collective interest”says Thomas Cavel, general secretary of the CFDT-Cheminots.
However, they know there will be no turning back. The liberalization movement accelerates: on December 15, railway workers working on the first TER lines open to competition will be transferred to new subsidiaries, created for the occasion, even when the SNCF won the market. the 1Ahem In January 2025, Fret SNCF employees will be transferred to two new entities.
Illegal state aid
This company of 5,000 railway workers, the leader in rail freight transport in France, is forced to transform, not by the 2018 law, but by the competition department of the European Commission. It accuses him of having received 5.3 billion euros in illegal state aid between 2007 and 2019 and may force him to return it. To avoid this, the State and the group’s management decided to cut Fret SNCF by 20% of its turnover, in the hands of its rivals, and divide it into two entities on 1Ahem January 2025: Hexafret, 4,000 people, which will take charge of freight transport activities, and Technis, 500 people, which will offer a locomotive maintenance service. The capital of the company that will supervise these two companies, Rail Logistics Europe, could be opened to a public or private shareholder, and SNCF would remain the majority.
“The 500 people, who are not under the control of either Hexafret or Technis, were offered a solution within the group”Fret SNCF management insists. It also ensures that, from 2025, Hexafret will have recovered, thanks to internal growth, the business volume of Fret SNCF. And it will have fewer expenses to pay since it is the head of the SNCF group that will finance the additional contribution to the special pension scheme for railway workers, that is, 12% of the payroll (18 to 20 million euros each year). . ). In this way, Hexafret will be on the same conditions as its private competitors.
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