The inter-union is currently maintaining its indefinite strike notice for the evening of December 11. After meeting the president of the SNCF this Tuesday, December 3, she has a meeting on Wednesday morning with the Minister of Transport to ask him in particular to stop the dismantling of Fret SNCF.
With just over a week to go before the deadline, the railway unions are maintaining pressure regarding the renewable strike planned for the evening of December 11. CGT, SUD, Unsa and CFDT, who met this Tuesday, December 3 in the morning with the boss of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, organized a press conference in Paris in the afternoon for an update.
As it stands, the principle of an unlimited walkout remains relevant and the notice, filed at the beginning of November, still stands. The inter-union raised three points on which it calls for negotiation with management and the government: the dismantling of Fret SNCF, the end of the process of subsidization of the SNCF, experienced as a slow privatization, and financing announcements multi-annual for the maintenance and development of the rail network. On November 21, a first day of strike took place in this regard, but only mobilized around a quarter of the employees.
According to the general secretary of the CGT Cheminots, Thierry Nier, this Tuesday's meeting with Jean-Pierre Farandou did not allow, “for now”, to provide answers “at the level of the demands made by the inter-union”. But the meeting, it seems, was not entirely in vain either, because, without going into details, the trade unionist notes that points of discussion “are reopening and deserve to be explored in greater depth” by December 11. We are still a long way from withdrawing the notice, but it is a small opening. When contacted, SNCF did not wish to comment.
A meeting with the Minister of Transport, Wednesday morning
Wednesday morning, the unions have a meeting with the Minister of Transport, François Durovray. A few hours before the probable overthrow of the government, they will once again ask the minister “to come out on top” by declaring a moratorium on the SNCF Freight division, scheduled for January 1. He has until now always opposed it. Wishful thinking, then? The inter-union believes that the current political instability and the possible future appointment of a Prime Minister from the left can, in extremis, tip the scales in its favor.
Concerning the question of freight, it could not be more pressing and “of general interest”, the unions are multiplying their fronts in recent days. On Monday, the four representative organizations wrote to the new European Competition Commissioner, Teresa Ribera, who took up her post on Sunday. One month before the French company splits into two entities (resulting in the elimination of 500 jobs), they want to believe that “this choice of the worst […] can still be avoided” thanks to a last minute change of heart from the Spaniard, from the Socialist Workers' Party.
The unions are partly basing their hopes on the fact that the Commission validated on Friday German state aid of 1.9 billion euros intended to pay off the debts of the public company DB Cargo. A decision that she justifies in particular by the fact that “Rail freight is essential as a lower emissions solution to replace road transport”. French railway workers see this “an obvious parallelism” and one “distortion of consideration” with “the situation of Fret SNCF”. That it is, according to them, “still time to save”.
