2023-09-26 06:13:02
It is an activity little known to the general public. But the five letters of the word freight appear at the very top of the leaflet in which CGT, SUD-rail and CFDT call for the mobilization of railway workers, this Tuesday, September 26. Car Fret SNCF, the goods transport subsidiary, is today approaching one of the sharpest turns in its history.
To grasp the roots of what trade unionists describe as “dismantling”we have to go back to 2020, the year when the parent company relieved its newly created subsidiary of 5.3 billion euros of debt, taken into its own accounts.
The problem is that this reduction – like the concomitant recapitalization of Fret SNCF to the tune of 170 million euros – possibly contravenes competition rules. And Brussels launched an investigation in January to determine this.
The risk of bankruptcy
Enough to place the French state in a dilemma. To wait without moving for the end of the procedure, possibly to contest its conclusions, was to risk seeing Fret SNCF, unable to repay this jackpot, go bankrupt. The executive could also – this is what it chose – show the Commission its goodwill by applying the principle of “discontinuity”: the company gives way to a legally different entity, which continues the activity within a restricted area.
Fret SNCF will therefore cease to exist at the end of 2024. It will then be replaced by not one but two new structures: one for transport, the other for equipment maintenance. “The latter will also be able to work for competing operators”, anticipates Arnaud Aymé, transport specialist at Sia Partners. One way, according to him, to “underline the break”.
The abandonment of 23 profitable lines
Above all, Fret SNCF will have to abandon “dedicated” trains running on 23 routes to competition (Deutsche Bahn, Lineas, Europorte, etc.) by January 2024. These are entire trains operated on a regular basis and which, on behalf of a single customer, transport all the goods from point A to point B. ArcelorMittal convoys, certain rail highways should be concerned such as the one allowing semi-trailers to be transported from the Spanish border to Calais or the “primeurs train” between Perpignan and Rungis.
Because they do not involve the recomposition of convoys, these services are the easiest to resume. Corresponding to 20% of Fret SNCF’s turnover, they offer sufficient profitability to interest competitors.
End of contracts
At the end of July, Fret SNCF notified the customers concerned of the end of the contracts. “Among them, the few shippers I know have all chosen to keep the rail transport solution, rather than switching back to the roadindicates Arnaud Aymé. All have obtained responses from operators to their calls for tenders,” he emphasizes, while rail freight is often cited as a decarbonization solution.
For its part, as the company indicates, “Fret SNCF will focus on capacity management, which consists of assembling and reassembling isolated wagons operated on behalf of different customers in order to transport them to their destination, in France and Europe”. A more complex activity, long considered unprofitable.
Further job losses
In the process, Fret SNCF will lose 10% of its jobs, around 500 positions. Even if the staff concerned should join other subsidiaries of the group, this is another step in the reduction of the workforce. As the CGT points out, more than 10,000 jobs have been lost since 2002, despite six successive recovery plans which left the share of goods transported by rail at barely 10%.
Beyond the social conditions of these transfers, another question torments the unions: will the sacrifices made be enough to mollify the Commission? Because Brussels does not decide a priori on the reform. She is not abandoning her investigation and will only say after the plan is put into action whether the discontinuity is marked enough for the slate to be wiped clean…
Waiting for reaction from Brussels
The entourage of Clément Beaune, Minister for Transport, appears calm: “Taking into account the exchanges with the Commission services, the State has sufficient certainty that once implemented, discontinuity will make it possible to resolve Brussels’ criticisms. »
Thomas Clavel, general secretary of the CFDT-Cheminots, is less so: “In 2020, during the transformation into a subsidiary of Fret SNCF, Élisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport, and Clément Beaune, still Minister Delegate for European Affairs, had not anticipated the reproaches of the Commission. Also, today, we distrusts their reassuring words…”
—–
Few disruptions to expect on the rails
Despite the call for a strike from the three main unions (CGT, SUD-rail and CFDT), the SNCF plans to operate trains « almost normal » Tuesday September 26.
However, “slight disruptions may be encountered on certain lines or in certain regions”as in Île-de-France where lines C, D and E of the RER, as well as line N of the Transilien, should be affected.
#dismantling #freight #activity #clearer