French railway workers are not the only ones to mobilize, as the end of year celebrations approach. Eurostar trains will not be able to run on the English side on December 26, the British high-speed line being closed due to a strike called by the transport union RMT, Eurostar announced on Friday.
“Eurostar trains will not be able to run to and from St Pancras if the British high-speed line is closed,” the company said in a statement, adding that none of Eurostar’s employees will be on strike.
The Eurostar connects London to Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. “We did everything we could to get access to the UK high-speed line on Boxing Day – as we have done on all other RMT strike days this year – and we made it clear to them the impact what it will have for those who have booked their trip, ”deplores the director of operations of Eurostar, Bertrand Gosselin, quoted in the press release.
40,000 British railway workers plan to walk off four days in January
December 26 or “Boxing Day” marks the start of the sales in the United Kingdom. In a context of inflation which is close to 11% in the country and is cutting into the purchasing power of the British, strike movements are multiplying in a multitude of sectors, in particular in the railways and the health sector.
A strike by employees of Network Rail, the public manager of the rail network, is notably planned from December 24 in the evening to December 27 in the morning at the call of the RMT union. In a broader movement, some 40,000 British railway workers, employees of Network Rail but also of 14 private train companies, are also on strike this Friday and Saturday and plan to walk off four days in January. In France, the specter of a controllers’ strike still hovers. The trade unions (Sud Rail, CFDT Cheminots and CGT) have not yet provided an answer to SNCF management on whether or not to maintain the notices filed for the weekends of December 23 to 26 and December 30. to January 2.