SNCF STRIKE. Switchers could go on strike during the only school holiday weekend common to all zones A, B and C. What we know.
After the mobilization of controllers last weekend, which halved the circulation of SNCF TGV and Ouigo trains throughout France, a new strike movement could be looming at the start of next weekend, with departures on vacation winter in zone B (Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Normandy, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Strasbourg), mid-holiday in zone C (Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles) and returning from vacation in zone A (Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers).
The Sud-Rail union calls on SNCF switchmen to stop work from Friday February 23 from 11 a.m. until Saturday February 24 at 11 p.m. in order to obtain better working conditions, recruitment and obtaining a “traffic allowance” of 300 euros per month, according to a notice filed since January 31. “It’s the maximum cross-over of the winter holidays, one of the biggest days for the company. Our power to cause harm is maximum. The possibilities for the company to make our action invisible are limited”, announces SUD rail at Libération.
But SNCF management is currently optimistic. “The SNCF is continuing negotiations with the various unions,” Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, assured France 2 on Thursday February 15. In addition, the CGT-Cheminots union did not file a notice for its part. “At this stage, there is no information to suggest that there will be any disruptions next weekend,” says the railway company. This weekend, the SNCF controllers’ strike was massively followed with nearly 75% of strikers (i.e. three out of four controllers), eliminating the journeys of a few 150,000 travelers out of the million who had booked a ticket.