Where are they, the freight railway workers? We did not find them in the hall of the North station where the flags of all the SNCF unions were flying. CFDT, CGT, Sud Rail and Unsa called for a strike this Thursday, November 21, against the dismantling of Fret SNCF. “There is so little left of freight that we no longer know those who work there”sighs a CGT student. And the new project, separation of this subsidiary into two companies and 20% of turnover that the SNCF will have to leave to its competitors (1)does not inspire any confidence in the railway unions.
It must be said that wagons carrying goods no longer circulate much in the region. Fret SNCF employs around fifty people in Pays de la Loire, around twenty are based in Nantes with only five drivers. “In Nantes, there remains a service, at Roche-Maurice, near the port for cereals and another for the transport of steel with Arcelor Mittal”explains Thierry Pleyber, from the Fer Nantes collective. Other trains run on the Port, notably in Saint-Nazaire, but with a private operator.
Regardless, freight has been described as moribund for years. “The train represents no more than 3% of goods transport in the region. » Nicolas Boumier, CGT railway worker, remembers the isolated wagons in different companies that were assembled to make trains, twenty years ago. “It no longer exists here. »
However, the train is a good solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing truck traffic, insists Thierry Pleyber. France has committed under the climate law to doubling the share of goods transported by train by 2030. “We are far from it”, he continues. He fears the consequences of dismantling Fret SNCF. Railway workers too. The project is equivalent to the loss of 500 jobs in France. They are calling for a new renewable strike starting Wednesday, December 11.
(1) The price to pay according to management for not repaying the 5.3 billion in state aid deemed illegal by Europe.
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