The unions have until Friday 12:00 p.m. to decide on this agreement. The management warns that in case of refusal, there will be no new proposals.
The management of the SNCF proposed Thursday, December 22 in the evening of “complementary measures” for the controllers to prevent their strike, which will disrupt the Christmas weekend, from extending into the New Year. The unions have until Friday 12:00 p.m. to decide on this new agreement, which proposes “strong additional measures in favor of the recognition of the profession of skipper, the creation of positions, and the progression of their careers“Said the SNCF in a press release.
Among the proposals is the creation of a management of the skippers in order to guarantee “more listening» for the controllers, the increase of a bonus which would thus go from 600 to 720 euros, or even the creation of 200 additional jobs to the quota of 8500 controllers that the SNCF has today. “I think we gave everything so that today at noon we can say that this draft agreement will allow us to save the New Year weekend“, said Friday morning on France Inter the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs. According to him, these measuresshould (…) carry the agreement (of the strikers)“. If this was not the case, there will be no other draft agreements, warned the head of the railway group. This means that the strikes would be maintained over the New Year’s Eve weekend.
The management of the public group had brought together the representative unions on Thursday evening by videoconference, while nearly half of the controllers will be on strike this weekend, causing the cancellation of many Christmas trains. The government put pressure Thursday on the management of the SNCF to find a solution. However, this strike is atypical: it is led by an informal group of skippers organized on Facebook and rejecting any union membership. The movement is made possible by notices filed by the CGT-Cheminots and SUD-rail federations, which do not, however, call for a strike.
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Management’s new proposals include the creation of a “ASCT business line(Board captain), which brings together all the controllers under the same hat, a union source told AFP. 160 additional jobs should be created from 2023, and 40 more jobs “in sensitive trains“. The specific premium for controllers would also increase from 600 to 720 euros gross annually.
200% refund
Nearly half of the controllers declared themselves on strike this weekend, causing the cancellation of one train out of three on Friday, and two trains out of five on Saturday and Sunday, especially TGVs. Some axes will be more affected than others, such as the Atlantic axis or the North axis, with only one out of two TGVs. In an exceptional situation, exceptional measure: SNCF customers began to receive emails offering them a 200% refund in vouchers, whether they were able to travel or not.
With the cancellations of some travellers, a few places were still available Thursday evening on the main routes. But the canceled or full trains have pushed many of them to turn to coaches or carpooling. FlixBus told AFP that it would transport 115,000 passengers from Friday to Monday, 10 to 15% more than in 2019. And BlaBlaCar Bus said to double certain rotations for Thursday and Friday, between Paris and several cities including Nantes, Lyon or reindeer. Bison Futé warned that Friday could be a complicated day on the road in Ile-de-France, advising to leave the region before 10 a.m., with a peak of traffic jams expected between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
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Other travelers have adapted their train travel days. “I decided to leave a day before, by taking leave, and also to postpone my return, by telecommuting“explains Xavier, who joins Bayonne from Paris. Air France, also affected by a call for a strike by two unions of hostesses and stewards until January 2, for its part indicated that it would operate all its flights on Friday and Saturday.
«We gave everything to avoid the strike“, underlined the CEO of SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou Thursday morning, insisting on the mandatory annual negotiations which ratified in early December an average salary increase of nearly 6% in 2023 for railway workers, according to him. “And for the TGV captains, we even added 1.5 more pointshe pointed out. We have provided employment, we have guaranteed that there will be two skippers per TGV and we have made career development commitments».
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