The government must face an increase in strike calls for the months of November and December in France, in a sluggish economic context and against a backdrop of budgetary austerity for 2025.
SNCF: call for indefinite strike from December 11
The SNCF unions called on Saturday for an indefinite strike from Wednesday December 11 to demand a moratorium against the announced dismantling of Fret SNCF and to protest against the terms of opening regional lines to competition.
Fret SNCF must disappear on 1is January 2025 to be reborn in the form of two distinct companies, called Hexafret, for freight transport, and Technis, for locomotive maintenance. This is the second stage of the discontinuity plan negotiated by the French State with the European Commission, to avoid a recovery procedure which could have led to the pure and simple liquidation of the company, which employs 5,000 employees.
In a joint press release sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the CGT-Cheminots, the UNSA-Ferroviaire, Sud-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots explained that, faced with the lack “inflection” from the group's management, the strike would be unlimited and renewable for periods of twenty-four hours starting Wednesday, December 11 at 7 p.m.
The unions also reiterated their call for a strike from Wednesday November 20 at 7 p.m. to Friday November 22 at 8 a.m.
Airline pilots call strike and rally Thursday
The National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL) called for a strike on Thursday and a rally in front of the National Assembly after the vote by the deputies for an increase in taxation on air transport. “Against the government's desire to take an additional billion per year from the aviation sector, we call on pilots, but also all employees in the aviation sector to mobilize on November 14”declared a spokesperson for the ultra-majority union among pilots to AFP on Sunday.
In a joint press release sent 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 to join the movement.
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 . This amendment is supposed to increase air transport taxation by one billion euros, with entry into force on 1is January 2025. 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 budget rapporteur, Charles de Courson.
New mobilizations of farmers
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, in particular at the call of the majority unions: the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA), and Young Farmers (JA).
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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 the subject of 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.
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Call for strike in the public service on Thursday
Two of the main civil service unions, FO and the CGT, called a strike on Thursday after the failure of a meeting with the Minister of the Civil Service, Guillaume Kasbarian, raising the possibility of mobilizations at the beginning of December.
“We will take the minister's game at its word: three days of waiting time, three days of strike”launched Christian Grolier, general secretary of the UIAFP-FO, who wants to work with the inter-union “as wide as possible”. “It’s obvious that the CGT is going to take part in a strike movement”added Sylviane Brousse, coordinator of the CGT Civil Service, denouncing a ” contempt “ of the minister for public officials.
