This Monday, November 25, the SNCF unions called on railway workers to go on strike from December 11 at 7 p.m. A mobilization to demand a moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF, but also to protest against the terms of opening regional lines to competition.
“We move on to act 2.” In a joint press release published this Monday, November 25, the SNCF unions confirmed their desire to launch an indefinite strike starting December 11 at 7 p.m.
“The union organizations, united and determined, are calling on the railway workers to go on strike en masse,” wrote the federations of the CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, Sud-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots.
The latter demand a moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF scheduled for January 1 and which must be replaced by two new subsidiaries and “call on the government to convene a tripartite negotiation meeting without delay if it wants to avoid a strike.”
The dismantling of Fret SNCF results from an agreement between France and the European Commission which had opened an investigation into illegal public aid. This agreement allowed the abandonment of possible prosecutions.
“It is unthinkable and irresponsible to liquidate a major public player essential to the decarbonization of transport” deplore the unions who denounce the number of 500 railway workers out of 5,000 who will be ousted in the process.
The SNCF has nevertheless already promised that the latter would all be reclassified in another company in the group.
Opposition to the opening of regional lines to competition
Furthermore, the CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, Sud-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots want the mobilization to serve to protest against the opening to competition of regional lines (TER, Transiliens and Intercités).
This process would result in nearly 1,200 railway workers being transferred to group subsidiaries from December. A change that the unions want to see stopped.
“It is a dogmatic choice assumed by the president [Jean-Pierre] Farandou aimed at preserving the margins of the SNCF to the detriment of the social gains of the railway workers”, denounce the unions, who believe that “the social dumping and the liquidation of the rights of the railway workers which result” from this decision “are purely unacceptable”.
Finally, the federations are calling for the adoption of “a multi-year programming law for the modernization of the rail system”, because “in the absence of funding, thousands of kilometers of lines could leave the national network”.
The SNCF unions already carried out a day of strike on November 21. It was nevertheless moderately attended since only a quarter of the railway workers took part.
