2024-02-16 06:09:12
The SNCF controllers’ strike is in full swing from Friday and for this entire weekend of holidaymakers, with major disruptions planned for the TGVs. Train traffic has been “strongly disrupted” since Thursday 8 p.m. and until Monday 8 a.m., warned the rail operator, who advised travelers to postpone their journeys if possible. Three quarters of the crew chiefs, without whom a TGV cannot run, are expected to strike this weekend, according to the SNCF.
The service is reduced by half on the TGV Inoui and Ouigo lines, as well as for day and night Intercités. It must be “normal” for classic Ouigo trains and “disrupted” for European connections, such as Eurostar. Traffic should be much less disrupted on local lines. For example, it must be “normal” on the TER Burgundy, “disturbed” in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and “slightly disturbed” on the Marseille-Toulon axis, according to the regional sites.
Ski trips preserved
“All territories will be irrigated by TGVs but not all French people will be able to travel,” warned Christophe Fanichet, the boss of SNCF Voyageurs, traveling to Lyon on Thursday. “The priority is to favor trains which are full and… in February, it is the trains from the Alps,” he added. The connections to and from these ski resorts where the wagons were full should therefore all be ensured.
On the other hand, certain lines will be more affected, such as Paris-Bordeaux, where more than 60% of trains are canceled, according to France Blue. This is one of the main crossover weekends of the school holidays, with a million travelers expected on the SNCF lines.
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Customers, who were informed Wednesday by SMS and email, are strongly encouraged to postpone their trip. Those whose train is canceled will be able to exchange their ticket free of charge or have the entire price refunded. The carrier is also offering a 50% discount on the next trip to affected customers, thanks to a code sent “automatically” and “within one month”.
“The strike must be the ultimate weapon”
The striking unions believe that the crisis exit agreement negotiated at the end of 2022, when a strike on the Christmas weekend left 200,000 travelers stranded, is slow to be implemented. They also demand a renegotiation of the agreement on the end of career. “The company’s commitments which were made in December 2022 are being met”, particularly on additional positions, replied the boss of SNCF Voyageurs.
This strike, launched at the initiative of an informal collective of controllers, relaunched the debate on the right to strike during certain periods. “The strike must be the ultimate weapon”, but it has “become an instrument of negotiation”, pointed out the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, open to the discussion on mechanisms to supervise these social movements, such as that of the controllers of the SNCF. A text from the senatorial right prohibiting notices around public holidays and on “the first two and last two days” of school holidays is already in the pipeline.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, for his part, deplored “a form of habit, with each upcoming holiday, of having the announcement of a strike” by railway workers. “The French know that the strike is a right”, but “also that working is a duty”, he said on Wednesday.
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