Faced with the debacle that reigns on the rail network this Christmas weekend, the SNCF has made new proposals to the unions of controllers. The latter have until noon this Friday to decide on this new agreement. The fate of the New Year, also hit by a strike notice, is pending.
Half of the controllers will be on strike this weekend, causing the cancellation of two out of five trains on Saturday and Sunday, especially TGVs. More than 200,000 travelers are affected by train cancellations and must find an alternative to join their families to celebrate Christmas.
During a meeting with the unions on the evening of Thursday 22 December, the management of the SNCF group proposed “strong additional measures in favor of the recognition of the profession of skipper, the creation of positions, and the progression of their careers,” she said in a statement.
The CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail federations lead the negotiations on the controller side. But this strike is atypical: it is led by an informal collective of captains organized on a Facebook group of around 3,500 members, and rejecting any union membership. The unions have therefore filed notices for the collective, but do not themselves call for a strike. A situation that makes both the management of the SNCF and the union representatives uncomfortable.
Additional measures conceded under pressure
Among the new proposals, 160 additional jobs should be created from 2023, and 40 more jobs “in sensitive trains”. The specific bonus for controllers would increase from 600 to 720 euros gross annually. The management also proposes the creation of an “ASCT business line” (board manager), which brings together all the controllers under the same hat, a union source told AFP.
“We gave everything to avoid the strike,” said SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou on Thursday morning, a few hours before the new proposals. He insisted on the mandatory annual negotiations which, according to him, ratified at the beginning of December an average salary increase of nearly 6% in 2023 for railway workers. “And for the TGV skippers, we even added 1.5 more points, he assured. We put jobs, we gave the guarantee that there are two skippers per TGV and we have made career development commitments”.
But the government put pressure on the SNCF on Thursday, encouraging it to end this strike which penalizes many French people. Olivier Véran had also asked the strikers “to hear the legitimate request of the French to be able to find their family in good conditions”. While a strike call from two unions of hostesses and stewards also affects Air France until January 2, the company for its part indicated that it would operate all its flights over the Christmas weekend.