Reassure the French. This is the mission that the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune seems to have set himself with the approach of departures on vacation for the end of the year celebrations. “I want to be reassuring, yes, most of the service will be provided,” he said again this Thursday morning on France inter. The proliferation of social conflicts in the transport sector, however, raised fears of the opposite.
A string of strike notices have been filed in several companies and negotiations between unions and management seem to be stalling. Overview of social movements still unresolved a few days before the Christmas holidays.
At the SNCF: minimal disruption?
Signalmen’s strike, controllers’ strike and now drivers’ strike on the TGV Atlantique axis which serves the West and South-West of the country… At the SNCF, negotiations are taking place all over the place to avoid the catastrophic scenario of repeated strikes during the holiday season.
The latest of the social movements: that of the drivers on the Atlantic TGV axis brings together an inter-union bringing together the CGT-Cheminots, the Unsa-Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots. The latter filed a strike notice last Thursday for the first weekend of the school holidays. This is the line that should be the most impacted by social movements.
On Wednesday evening, the SNCF still indicated that the circulation of trains would be “slightly disturbed” for departures during the Christmas holidays, this weekend, with only “twenty TGVs removed” on Friday out of 700 planned. The unions denounce the shortages of personnel which deteriorate the working conditions of the drivers and criticize the choice of the management to reduce the number of training courses. Intercités traffic should be “almost normal”.
A national strike notice was also filed by the signalmen at the call of SUD-Rail, which reiterated Tuesday evening its desire to go all the way after a new meeting with management.
In the air: threat to Air France…
Despite the holding of 14 meetings since September and negotiations still in progress, the conflict between the management of Air France and part of the unions of hostesses and stewards is well bogged down. At this stage, it is difficult to imagine the Unac and the SNGAF, which together represent a little more than 50% of cabin crew (PNC), lifting their strike notice which runs from December 22 to January 2. “The strike is maintained”, assures Anne Vildy, general secretary of Unac.
The agreement governing the working conditions of flight personnel expired at the end of October and the management is negotiating a new one with the unions with the aim of concluding by March. “Air France plans to transport all of its customers and does not foresee any cancellations at this stage”, assures the tricolor company despite everything. Other companies serving overseas territories are also threatened by strike action. This is the case for Corsair from December 16 to 22 and Air Antilles from December 17 to 22.
… but no longer at EasyJet
On the other hand, the conflict between the Cabin Crew Members and the management of the French subsidiary of EasyJet has been resolved. After a day of negotiations, the management agreed to significantly increase wages for 2023 and the unions of hostesses and stewards withdrew their threat to file a strike notice for the end of the year celebrations. The French subsidiary of EasyJet finally agreed to increase the base salary of Cabin Crew Members by 7.5% and the variable parts by 3.5% in 2023. It will also pay a “Macron bonus” of 3,000 euros to the all hostesses and stewards.