The government has called on the group’s management and unions to avoid at all costs that trains are canceled again on December 31 and January 1.
After a very disrupted Christmas weekend on the national rail network, what will happen to the New Year weekend? Two strike notices, still filed by SUD-rail and the CGT Cheminots on the initiative of a collective of controllers, also threaten the trains scheduled for New Year’s Eve. And the management of the SNCF like the government are now emphasizing a short-term objective: to save these two days, during which many French people travel across France.
Asked about RTL Thursday morning, the chairman and CEO of SNCF confirmed that he was mobilized to prevent a new strike from leading to the cancellation of trains on the weekend of January 1. “For next weekend, it’s not too late. There is no reason to punish the French twice“, Hammered Jean-Pierre Farandou, who will meet union representatives Friday morning. On the other hand, “for this weekend, it is unfortunately too late”, conceded the representative of the railway group.
Read alsoWhy the SNCF will pay this strike at a high price
The government is also mobilized. The challenge, “it’s now to make sure that we don’t end up with the same scenario next week“, Estimated Thursday morning on France 2 Christophe Béchu, Minister for the Ecological Transition, after having vilified social movements “not worthy” who “undermine the right to strike». «I call for an agreement in the hours to come“, also pleaded Bruno Le Maire on Sud Radio. The Minister of Economy and Finance remained cautious about possible longer-term solutions to avoid this type of situation in the future: “I do not recommend starting to put new proposals on the table“, Like the requisition of personnel or the sanctuary of periods without strike, he said.
Same observation on the side of his colleague in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune. “The fight to lead is to save the next weekend“, he declared at the same time, denouncing a strike”whose timing is incomprehensible and unjustifiable“. Like his counterpart from Bercy, Clément Beaune focused on the weekend of December 31 and January 1, wishing “avoidthat mobilizations also disturb him. “It is necessary that the direction of the SNCF resume a discussion with the unions, that the unions also exercise all their responsibility on the agents of the SNCF“, he pleaded.
SEE ALSO – SNCF strike: will there be trains at Christmas?
The executive puts pressure on the SNCF and the strikers
Faced with the anger of many French people, the members of the government also hardened their tone against the strikers. “This strike cannot be understood by the French. In general, strikes should be avoided, especially at Christmas. Because we know it, the French are tired, there have been two years of Covid. (…) This accumulation is painful“, justified Clément Beaune. Describing the social movement as a “disaster for many families“, the minister placed the strikers before their responsibilities, accusing the collective of “hurt the railway company».
The Minister of the Economy has also hardened his tone, calling on the SNCF to “find ways out of this conflict […] which legitimately exasperates a certain number of our compatriots” as quickly as possible. Siding with the users harmed by the social movement, Bruno Le Maire said he was thinking of “taxpayer“, which bailed out the railway group whenever it needed it. “Every citizen has the right to have a well-functioning public transport company, especially in the Christmas period“, Hammered the boss of Bercy.
The strikers do not have the support of the CFDT either: questioned on BFMTV, Laurent Berger estimated that the mobilization of the collective of controllers was not “not a trade union action“. The secretary general of the representative organization warned about this type of movement, which is similar to the modus operandi of the “yellow vestsoutside of any traditional structure. It remains to be seen whether the strikers will hear the many calls to let the French leave during the New Year weekend.