The New Year is saved. The unions approved this Friday the agreement proposed the day before by the management. After repeated government pressure, the situation should therefore improve for the French who wish to move since the notices filed for a new strike on January 1 must be lifted.
“If the disturbances will remain unchanged for this weekend, this agreement allows the lifting of strike notices with the aim of a return to normal in the very next few days and in particular for the weekend of the 1st of An,” management said in a statement. She “welcomes that it is through social dialogue with the elected representatives of the railway workers that a way out of the conflict is found and that the demands of the captains have been heard”.
On the government side, after several strokes of pressure, Elisabeth Borne the Prime Minister hailed “the spirit of responsibility”.
The CGT-Cheminots, the Unsa-Ferroviaire – the only union to have already lifted its notice -, SUD-Rail and the CFDT-Cheminots have therefore agreed to put an end to the conflict, triggered by a collective of controllers formed on Facebook and which rejected any trade union membership.
During a meeting with the four representative unions on Thursday, SNCF management proposed “additional measures” for controllers to prevent their strike from extending into the New Year.
The new proposals include the creation of an “ASCT business line” (head of the board), which brings together all the controllers under the same hat, according to a union source. 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.
A thousand strikers
For this Christmas weekend, it’s already too late. A thousand train managers declared themselves on strike and one in three trains was canceled on Friday and two in five on Saturday and Sunday, leaving 200,000 passengers at the platform.
On Friday, Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, reiterated SNCF’s apologies and recalled the exceptional measures taken: customers have started to receive emails offering them 200% compensation in vouchers, whether they have been able to travel or not, in addition to the reimbursement of the ticket.
But the canceled or full trains have pushed many travelers to turn to coaches, carpooling, or simply the car (their own or a rental, if they can find one.)