Busy autumn on the social front. Already faced with social plans at Michelin and Auchan, the government must face an increase in calls for upcoming strikes in France, in a gloomy economic context and against a backdrop of budgetary austerity for 2025. Sector by sector, Liberation takes stock.
From Monday 11 to Wednesday 13 November: strike notice without impact at RATP
The opening to competition for RATP buses triggered a strike notice from the CGT branch of the RATP, which sees in this opening a “pretext for incessant attacks on the workforce, on [les] working conditions and [les] remuneration ». This notice covers “all staff and in all departments” for the period from Monday November 11 from 7 p.m. until Wednesday November 13 at 7 a.m. Contacted by Liberation this Monday, the RATP assures that this strike will have no impact on traffic.
Thursday November 14: airline pilots strike
The national union of airline pilots (SNPL) is calling for a strike and a rally in front of the National Assembly on Thursday, November 14 after the vote by the deputies for an increase in taxation on air transport. In a joint press release sent on Sunday, November 10 at the end of the day, several other unions in the sector – Unsa transport, Unsa PNC, CFE-CGC Fnema, Unac, SNPNC-FO and Feets-FO – announced that they called “all employees of the airline sector to come and demonstrate their disagreement with this tax that is deadly for jobs before the National Assembly on November 14”. “This project is an unprecedented attack on the airline sector in France, its jobs, its competitiveness and its sustainability”they denounce.
The deputies, who are examining the draft 2025 budget, approved on Friday the increase in taxation on air transport proposed by the government, however limiting its duration to one year and excluding Overseas and Corsica from the system . Concretely, this system will increase the tax rates on plane tickets. For economy class flights, the increase will be from 2.60 euros per passenger to 9.50 euros for a European destination, from 7.50 euros to 15 euros for intermediate destinations, and from 7.50 euros to 40 euros for distant destinations, according to the general rapporteur of the Budget, Charles de Courson.
Friday November 15: farmers show their anger
On the side of farmers, anger is brewing again, less than a year after a movement which partly paralyzed the main roads in France. Symbolic actions have resumed in recent weeks and should increase after mid-November, particularly at the call of the majority unions FNSEA and Young Farmers (JA). Who are calling to take to the streets this Friday, November 15. Farmers, hit hard this year by poor wheat harvests and a renewed health crisis on livestock farms, are demanding to be able to make a living from their profession: they are waiting for clarity on loans guaranteed by the State. And they categorically refuse the signing of a free trade agreement negotiated between the EU and Latin American countries, Mercosur.
From Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 November: strike at the SNCF
The unions of the SNCF railway company are calling on them to stop work from Wednesday, November 20, 7 p.m. to Friday, November 22, 8 a.m. They also launched an indefinite strike notice on Saturday from Wednesday December 11 at 7 p.m. (renewable for periods of 24 hours). Potentially disrupting service during the Christmas holidays.
Representatives of railway workers are calling for a moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF, the division dedicated to rail freight, and are protesting against the terms of opening regional lines to competition. “The dialogue must succeed” between the leaders of the SNCF and the unions of the public company, judged the Minister of Transport, François Durovray on Sunday. “Everyone is responsible”, “we cannot imagine that at the moment when France must move forward, it will be blocked and that at the moment when the French want to find themselves again, they will not be able to do so”he said on France Info.
