SNCF STRIKE. Tuesday, February 7, 2023, travelers will still have to deal with disruptions on the TGV, Intercités, TER, Transiliens and RER SNCF due to a 3rd day of interprofessional strike against the pension reform.
[Mis à jour le 3 février 2023 à 17h43] Following the call of the French inter-union for a new day of national and interprofessional action against the pension reform on February 7, all the SNCF unions (CFDT-Cheminots, CGT-Cheminots, SUD Rail and UNSA Ferroviaire ) have agreed to join the movement, initially launched by the CGT-Cheminots on the side of the railway company. Through a communicated of the CGT-Railwaymen published the day after the second day of action on January 31, the first union of the SNCF had in fact already called on “railway workers of all colleges, all functions, all statuses, to continue the mobilization, by the strike, February 7 and 8, 2023“ next.
But these two consecutive days of strike at the SNCF are not unanimous. The unions of the UNSA Ferroviaire and the CFDT-Cheminots will not be on strike until February 7, excluding Wednesday February 8. If the day of February 7 risks major disruptions on the rails of the SNCF (TGV, TER, Intercités, Transiliens and RER), it is less certain that the call of February 8 by the only CGT-Cheminots and SUD Rail will be heard. by the striking officers. A fourth day of action against the pension reform, planned by the French inter-union, has been announced for Saturday February 11. But the SNCF unions have so far not clearly called for a strike on this day of departures and returns from vacation.
The four main SNCF unions unanimously call for mobilization against the pension reform on Tuesday February 7, 2023, which falls the day after the presentation of the text to the National Assembly. The traffic forecasts for the day of the strike on February 7 on the SNCF train network (TGV, Intercités, TER, Transiliens and RER) have not yet been announced but will be announced no later than Sunday evening, the strikers having the obligation to declare 48 hours before the start of the movement. It is a safe bet that the movement will be followed, as during the previous strikes of January 19 and 31, which respectively accounted for 46% and 36.5% of striking railway workers.
It should be noted that for the day of February 7, the agents of the RATP will also be on strike, which means that the Parisians will have to organize themselves accordingly, just like the tourists passing through the capital!
The CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail maintain their call for a strike the day after February 7, i.e. Wednesday February 8, without being followed by Unsa Ferroviaire and CFDT-Cheminots, who are sticking to the call of the eight main French trade unions. For the time being, the forecasts have not been announced, but will be by Monday evening at the latest.
The two dates of February 7 and 8, 2023 fall during the school holidays for zone A which start this Saturday February 4 and just before the February holiday departures for zone B which start on Saturday February 11!
If the date of February 7 decided by the inter-union is consensus among the unions of the SNCF, that of February 11, the fourth major day of action against the pension reform, is debated. The UNSA Ferroviaire union wants a simple “call for mobilization, not a strike” on Saturday February 11, to avoid criticism of this symbolic date for departures on winter vacation for zone B (Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen , Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Rouen and Strasbourg). An opinion shared by SUD Rail: “We debated the possibility of not having a call for a strike on this day and of having a simple call for demonstration”, announced the federal secretary of the union Erik Meyer at the France Media Agency. “We don’t want to block the holiday crossover,” he added. For its part, the CGT-Cheminots calls on the agents, “a priori in a unitary way to demonstrate on 11”, according to the words of the spokesperson for the first SNCF union.
The position of the unions on this key date will be clarified “by the end of the week or the beginning of next week”, according to him. The unions have also proposed a renewable strike “from mid-February“to the SNCF in the event that the government persists in its pension reform project.
Travelers on canceled TGV and Intercités trains receive the information via e-mail or SMS between 24 and 48 hours in advance (provided they have provided their contact details when booking). On the other hand, users of TER without a connection do not receive SMS. It is advisable to verify the information by informing its train number the day before and just before departure on the SNCF website.
To follow the traffic of main line trains (TGV, Intercités) in real time, consult the traffic forecasts on the site sncf.com. On mobile, it is also very practical to go to the Twitter account @SNCF_infopresse, and @SNCF. For the TER, go to this specific page ter.sncf.com which allows you to navigate by region. For the RER, you can follow the Twitter accounts @RERA, @RERB or this page dedicated to RER C. For the Transilien or RER network in general, simply go to the dedicated platform to check if his journey is provided by the SNCF.