Strike in the trains: the SNCF apologizes and reimburses, the government reprimands the strikers
Some 200,000 travelers were looking to find a ticket for Christmas on Wednesday after their trains were canceled due to a new strike by controllers, sharply criticized by the SNCF and the government for not being satisfied with the 12% salary increase granted in two years.
Only two out of three trains will run this weekend. The cancellations concern almost exclusively TGVs, the Intercités being generally spared. On Friday, in detail, two out of three TGVs should run on the Atlantic and Mediterranean axes, one out of two trains on the North axis (the Paris-Lille shuttle will be almost normal) and three out of four East TGVs. TGVs between provincial stations will be more affected. Three Ouigo out of four should also circulate.
For Saturday and Sunday, there will undoubtedly be a little more cancellations than Friday, warned the SNCF, without having yet confirmed the figures.
Travelers whose train has been canceled will be able to change their ticket without paying the price difference, repeats the SNCF.
Provided you find a seat on another train.
“All the trains are full or cancelled. I find it a bit rough. I understand the demands, but going on strike during the holidays… For children, families, it’s a bit difficult”, says a traveler “a little pissed off”, Isabelle Barrier, who came to Gare de Lyon to get her ticket to Toulouse reimbursed.
Instead, she will travel on Friday, a day earlier, by coach…an eight-hour journey.
– “Not at Christmas” –
The attitude of the controllers, who launched this strike by organizing on Facebook over the unions, somewhat annoys the management of the SNCF, which calculates that the wage increases represent 12% on average over two years.
Last year, a strike also ruined the first weekend of departures during the Christmas holidays, and the railway company had for the first time decided to reimburse travelers for double the amount of their canceled ticket.
The boss of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, announced the same 200% reimbursement measure on Wednesday. He who found last year “scandalous” to strike for the holidays reiterated that it was “unacceptable” to strike at Christmas.
“I want to apologize to the company,” he said on Franceinfo.
“At Christmas, we don’t go on strike,” also stormed government spokesman Olivier Véran.
“I obviously do not question the right to strike or the right of employees to demonstrate or to mobilize but frankly, is it essential to do so on a Christmas weekend? The answer is no”, estimated the minister on France Inter.
While ensuring that he did not want to “add oil to the fire”, he explained that “in just under two years, there will have been nearly 12% salary increases for people who today go on strike”.
The controllers had already gone on strike the first weekend of December. Since November, the SNCF has struggled to establish a dialogue with the collective organizer of this movement. The strikers are demanding better recognition of the specificity of their profession and reject any acquaintance with the unions, even if they had to rely on the latter to file notices.
The management proposed on December 8 to increase the “work bonus” of the captains (the official name of the controllers) by 600 euros per year, part of which would be integrated into their salary in 2024, as well as an additional allowance of 600 euros gross per year.
Proposals deemed sufficiently satisfactory for Unsa-Ferroviaire to withdraw its notice and for the CGT and SUD-rail not to call for the work to be stopped. Hundreds of controllers decided otherwise.