The railway workers were called to strike this Thursday, November 21 to demand a wage increase and denounce the dismantling of Fret SNCF. The mobilization, which was a warm-up before the social movement in December, was poorly attended.
“And whose station is it? She’s ours!” “And whose freight is it? He’s ours!” “And who is the snow for? She’s for us!” On one of the platforms of the Gare de Lyon, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, voices resonate this Thursday, November 21 late in the morning. At the end of a snowy general assembly in which around a hundred railway workers participated, a small procession was formed. In one of the station's imposing halls, then on the square, surprised passengers watch a flock of demonstrators parade, flags in hand and vests in the colors of their unions (especially SUD rail, CGT railway workers a little) on their shoulders. . The parade is like the mobilization of the day on a national scale: not very impressive.
This Thursday, the inter-union (CGT railway workers, Unsa railway, SUD rail and CFDT railway workers) called for a day of mobilization which was intended as a great warm-up and an ultimatum before the renewable strike of December 11. On today's menu, two central points: an increase in salaries deemed insufficient by the unions (management had proposed an increase of 2.2% during the obligatory annual negotiations which were held the day before) and, above all, a denunciation of the dismantling of SNCF freight. From January 1, 2025, the main rail freight transport company in France will be divided into two separate companies: Hexafret, for goods, and Technis, for locomotive maintenance. The process also provides for the abandonment to competition of 23 rail freight connections. Furthermore, an opening of the capital of Rail Logistics Europe, the SNCF division which will bring together freight activities, is planned for 2026.
“Our working conditions will suffer, our salaries too”
“It’s important to be here in solidarity with freight employeesinsists Thomas, a 25-year-old technician. Already to support them because there will be thousands of them to be divided [entre les deux filiales] or heavy [10 % des effectifs doivent être réorientés vers d’autres entités du groupe, ndlr]. Then because it is an ecological aberration: we know very well that the most profitable lines will continue to be operated by private actors, but that the others risk being shut down to switch to truck transport. However, a truck pollutes nine times more than a freight train, without counting all the public health-related expenses that this will entail.”
For the unions, these changes mark the start of privatization of the SNCF. “What happens to freight will gradually happen to the rest of the services. Everywhere, it's going to get worse and worse. Our working conditions will suffer, our salaries too,” predicts Mélina Janvrin, one of the voices of the RER D (she makes the announcements on the microphone) and elected to the CGT railway workers. The federal secretary of SUD rail, Fabien Villedieu, supports: “By opening up to capital, we are going to privatize. The TGV, which is the golden goose of the SNCF and brings us billions, who really believes that we are not going to privatize it? It will be done in small steps, but in the end, the result will be the same. We fear this privatization in our guts.”
“Either we move on, or we don't care about the steaks and in ten years we won't have to complain”
Only strong mobilization today can prevent the gradual dismantling of the public company for the benefit of private groups, assures the inter-union. Problem: the strike day this Thursday was poorly attended. If traffic on the RER D (two trains out of five compared to usual), on the TER (seven trains out of ten) or the Intercités (one out of two) has been disrupted, the TGVs, Inoui like Ouigo, have for their part circulated more or less normally. According to the CGT, one in four railway workers went on strike on Thursday, far from the levels reached during the fight against pension reform. “We have no choicewarns Fabien Villedieu. Either we mobilize massively together, we get moving, and we avoid doing like England which took twenty years after privatization to go back. Either we don't care and in ten years we will all be in subsidiaries with bare-bones rights and we won't have to complain about it.”
Having come to support his former colleagues, blue-white-red scarf around his neck, Bérenger Cernon, deputy (LFI) and former railway worker, for his part calls for action “a good big strike that blocks everything” from December 11 for “save freight and therefore public service”. The four union federations are due to meet in the evening to discuss the continuation of the movement.
