tense climate before RATP opens to competition

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Preparations far from taking place in a peaceful atmosphere. This Tuesday, November 12, 2024, the board of directors of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) will meet at the headquarters of the institution, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), to decide on the fate of first three batches marking the end of historical monopoly of the RATP on the Parisian and inner suburbs bus networks.

A two-year privatization

In a press release written on October 25, 2024, IDFM indicates that the three candidates “expected” to win these prizes are “ Keolis SA » and the RATP subsidiary, “Cap Île-de-France”. Keolis could operate the network located in the Marne and Brie region (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Seine-et-Marne). Cap Île-de-France would have the opportunity to manage the Boucles Nord de Seine territory (Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-Saint-Denis) and Bords de Marne.

Since 1948, the Autonomous Paris transport authority (RATP), a public industrial and commercial establishment 100% owned by the State, solely operates the lines on which buses run in the capital and neighboring departments. A situation which will cease from January 1, 2025. Private operators will then be able to enter this new market.

Scheduled for 2024, the opening to competition was finally extended until end of 2026. An arbitration made by the president of the region, Valérie Pécresse, to ward off possible strikes during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP). In total, twelve lots will be subject to calls for tender during this transition. In the meantime, trade union organizations remain mobilized to denounce this revolution Ile-de-France transport.

This Tuesday, Solidaires-RATP, Sud-Rail Fédération and the Sud-Solidaires Urban and Interurban Federationorganize a rally in front of IDFM headquarters. Objective, to oppose the “major social plan of the RATP” and the “privatization and destruction of our public companies”.

Contacted by Paris newsthe co-secretary of Solidaires-RATP and member of the Sud-Rail trade union, François-Xavier Arouls, shows pugnacity. “We are not ready to let this happen. This opening to competition means a degradation working conditions and a drop in quality for users. It’s a piecemeal sale of public service,” he criticizes.

To the highest bidder

For unions, calls for tenders respond to financial logic, particularly in terms of prix. Because production costs are part of the criteria used to win a prize. “Social dumping is dangerous. Even if (Valérie) Pécresse does not say it, she will choose the highest bidder, namely the one who costs the least,” denounces the federal secretary of the FO-RATP union, Jean-Christophe Delprat.

In the ranks of the RATP, concern is growing for the 16,000 machinists and the 19,000 employees. In December 2022, management had already presented an agreement proposing six days of rest removed and an increase of one hour in the hourly volume per day in return for an increase in salaries. “The employee is losing money,” regrets the union representative. The agreement was signed by the majority unions FO and UNSA.

On the management side, we retort “ social backpack», a system intended to support the transfer of agents holding a public law contract to the private sector. “RATP agents will retain the social and professional achievements relating to the status of the public industrial and commercial establishment RATP,” assures the institution.

In its press release, IDFM also recalls the “guarantees” for agents, mentioning “a limitation of changes of workplace and the maintenance of current working and social conditions regardless of the operator chosen”.

Jean-Christophe Delprat is doubtful about the content of this system. “What about colleagues’ remuneration, working conditions and professional projects? We are breaking their projection, this is not acceptable. Many colleagues are worried about their future,” he thunders. Especially since employees who reject job offers in the private sphere could be dismissed without pay.

Towards a deterioration of service?

From these areas of potential conflict, arises a risk for users . Because the unions fear a deterioration of a service that has already atrophied in recent years. “A private operator seeks above all margins. The equipment, maintenance, information systems… It’s of lower quality,” says François-Xavier Arouls.

For a user, their transport journey could soon prove delicate. Of metroa youtramwaystill operated by the RATP until 2040, to the buses soon to be cut into several sections, how will this “salamiing” denounced by the unions translate?

A subject on which IDFM will have to decide before the competition between the Parisian bus network and the inner suburbs. Jean-Christophe Delprat does not rule out mobilization if union demands are not taken into account. Winter could well be tinged with social conflict, like at the SNCF.

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