End of the year tense in sight
Localized problems with train travel are to be expected for this latter part of 2022. Massive cancellations are not announced.
This time, no massive train cancellations like last weekend with the controllers’ strike. (Illustrative photo)
KEYSTONE/EPA/YOAN VALAT
Limited disturbances, but a crucial day for the SNCF: if the French railway strike is finally not followed enough, the negotiations which open this Wednesday on wages promise to be crucial for the public group which wants to avoid disturbances during the end of year celebrations.
This time, no massive cancellation of trains like last weekend with the strike of the controllers, but localized problems, like in Lyon where a social movement of the signalmen disturbed the traffic towards Paris and the regional connections.
“I come from Firminy (Loire) and my trains this morning were canceled so I took the last one which left Châteaucreux (in the suburbs of Saint-Etienne), at 7:17 am”, explains Céline Déchaux, who was to arrive at work at 10:45 a.m. and therefore arrived at her destination at Lyon Part Dieu station “very, very early”.
“We are going to miss our plane”
“In a sense, they are right to complain,” said this 22-year-old young woman who works in early childhood, but “it puts a lot of people in difficulty, we have been in the sixth or seventh movement since September”.
A little further in the station, Daniel Cesari, a Mexican tourist whose train which was to take him to Roissy airport was canceled is less understanding. “We can’t find any information, we are told that we cannot take another train because they are all full. We are going to miss our plane,” he laments.
Outside the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, disturbances also affected the TERs of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand Est, Occitanie and Paca as well as certain lines in Île-de-France (C, D, E and N).
“I say this for the future, for the two weekends at the end of the year in particular, we must avoid this”, insisted the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, on the sidelines of the presentation of the Strasbourg RER . This strike follows three days of mobilization on the issue of wages, July 6, September 29 and October 18. A first increase had also been granted at the end of the July strike.
Ticket prices
But inflation has not slowed since, even reaching +6.2% in November over one year. The CGT-Cheminots therefore requests a salary increase at least equivalent and above all, retroactivity to January 1, 2022.
SUD-Rail is asking for 400 euros gross (about 395-francs) more per month for everyone and the CFDT-Cheminots a 13th month in addition to salary increases. As for Unsa-Ferroviaire, the only union not calling for a strike, it wants to see wages increase by at least 5%.
“Be careful, if wages increase too much, ticket prices will eventually increase too. It is a cost, the payroll”, warned last Thursday the CEO of the group Jean-Pierre Farandou. “We are asking for very clear announcements on a general increase in wages and work bonuses” from Wednesday, insisted Cédric Robert, federal secretary of the CGT-Cheminots.
“There is a social dialogue at the SNCF which exists and works well”, reassured Clément Beaune, calling on everyone to work on a compromise because “the French would not understand in a period which is not easy, which follows two Christmases which have already been complicated by the Covid, let us add complications to them”.
Pensions in the background
However, the climate is tense within the company, since the controllers are threatening to strike on Christmas and New Year weekends. They will also be received on Thursday to avoid such a scenario. Switchmen are also due to sit down with management on Friday. They demand recruitment and a salary more in line with their responsibilities.
After an initial strike threat not carried out on May 25, they had obtained the recruitment of 200 additional traffic officers, a bonus of 600 euros (about 592 francs) and a temporary increase of 20% of their work bonus for seven month.
The company “has not kept its commitments”, however, believes Erik Meyer of SUD-Rail. A strike notice was therefore again filed, this time from December 15 to 19, for the first weekend of the end-of-year holidays.
To make matters worse, the prospect of pension reform, which should be presented around December 15 by the government, is heating up the unions. “We will be up against this reform, as we had been during the last sequence of 2019-2020”, insisted Cédric Robert, recalling the 58 days of strike which had then paralyzed the SNCF.
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