A bus conductor was held up with a handgun by a young man riding an electric bike this Tuesday morning in Echirolles. Since then, the network has been shut down with a right of withdrawal exercised by agents. For them, a red line has once again been crossed.
“It’s almost every day”
When returning to the depot by bus or tram, many drivers and controllers are disillusioned. Tired of incivility, like Mehdi: “It’s become recurring, it’s almost every day. Every day, we receive alerts with an attack, an insult, a forced entry… There is no age limit anymore, everyone can do this. It seems like they are taking out their frustration on the controllers and drivers. One of his colleagues, who wants to remain anonymous, explains that the agents are asked to “let go”. It consists of not making a situation worse in the event of forced entry, for example, and therefore letting it happen. Despite everything, incivility takes place almost every day according to him.
Georges Garcia, representative of the majority FO union, believes that these facts are too serious this time to let go: “There is a ghettoization of society and Grenoble is not spared. A gun is not an insult or simple incivility. We are obliged to react so that the population realizes what we are going through.”
Meeting at 2:30 p.m. with management
A meeting takes place this Tuesday afternoon between management and union representatives, who are not very optimistic about the turn it will take: “Management is already threatening not to pay employees while we apply a right of withdrawal for our safety. They are not showing solidarity. Maybe the network won't be running on Wednesday either, I hope management will review its positions“, said Georges Garcia who will participate in this meeting.
Unions want transport police
Among the demands that have been coming back to Grenoble for several years, the establishment of a transport police. It would be necessary according to Mehdi: “We have asked several times for a transport police and we have nothing. We have the impression that they are waiting for something serious to happen. We cannot wait for that, it is not possible. We have the anti-attack windows which protect us drivers but not the controllers. They are in front of the people, confronted with this and we are not protecting them. We cannot. let this pass. We need people with us to protect drivers, controllers and users because there are serious things happening on the network at the moment. Grenoble has become very complicated to live in.”
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