No major chaos but localized disruptions: Thursday's strike at the SNCF at the call of all the group's unions is not massively followed, the day after announcements of moderate salary increases for 2025.
The Inoui and Ouigo TGVs will run more or less normally, but only seven out of ten TER trains and one out of two Intercités trains will run compared to usual.
In the Paris region, the R lines of the Transilien and the RER D, traditional strongholds of the Sud-Rail union, will be the most affected with only one train in three.
This half-hearted mobilization is a failure for the unions who sought to mobilize strongly after the announcement of the dismantling of Fret SNCF at the beginning of November.
They had presented this day as an “ultimatum” before a renewable strike movement from December 11, if no response was provided to their demands.
The CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, Sud-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots are calling in particular for a moratorium on the dismantling – without dismissal – of the public freight operator, leader in rail freight transport in France.
– Renegotiate –
They believe that the agreement concluded between the French government and the European Commission at the beginning of 2023 can be renegotiated with the new European executive, and in particular Teresa Ribera, future commissioner in charge of ecological transition and competition.
Asked on Wednesday on BFM Business about the reasons for the weak mobilization of railway workers, the general secretary of the CGT-Cheminots Thierry Nier recognized that “the subject is complex”.
“To say to yourself ‘I am affected by what is happening to freight’ is not obvious,” he admitted, while 5,000 railway workers work there out of 150,000 within the SNCF group.
But “what is happening to freight is exactly what is happening in passenger transport, particularly to the TER,” added Mr. Nier.
The inter-union is indeed concerned about the creation of subsidiaries by SNCF Voyageurs to respond to calls for tenders launched by the regions to operate their regional express train (TER) network.
In mid-December, nearly 1,200 railway workers will be transferred for the first time to three of these subsidiaries, with the result being a less advantageous organization of working time in order to gain productivity and competitiveness.
– Wages –
But according to SNCF management, Thursday's mobilization also obeys a hidden slogan which concerns salaries.
“The French would not understand a long and hard strike in December for salary issues,” CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou warned on Sunday.
Mandatory annual negotiations were held on Wednesday and SNCF management proposed a 2.2% increase, significantly less than in previous years, marked by high inflation.
For the unions, it is a simple coincidence of timing. “If the four union federations had wanted to raise the question of salary as a mobilization issue (…), we would have done so. We are not deceivers, we are clear and sufficiently legible,” insisted Thierry Nier.
“President Farandou adopted the strategy of diversion because he knows, in the strike notice, there is no question of salaries,” he denounced.
In addition to the moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF and the end of “subsidiarization” in the TER, the inter-union is asking for a multi-year programming law to finance the maintenance of the network.
The four union federations are due to meet in the evening to discuss the continuation of the movement.
