“There will be trains and planes” at Christmas. This is what Transport Minister Clément Beaune promised. But with the approach of the end-of-year holidays, the multiplication of social conflicts in the transport sector raises fears of the opposite. Several strike notices have been filed and negotiations between unions and management seem to be stalling. Overview of social movements still unresolved a few days before the Christmas holidays.
- A multiplication of conflicts at the SNCF
Signalmen’s strike, controllers’ strike and now drivers’ strike on the TGV Atlantique axis which serves the West and South-West of the country… At the SNCF, negotiations are taking place all over the place to avoid the disaster scenario of strikes repeatedly during the holiday season.
The latest social movement is that of drivers on the TGV Atlantique axis, which brings together an inter-union bringing together CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and CFDT-Cheminots. The latter filed a strike notice on Thursday, December 8 for the first weekend of the school holidays.
The unions denounce the shortages of personnel which deteriorate the working conditions of the drivers and criticize the choice of the management to reduce the number of training courses. A meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon to try to find a way out of the crisis and avoid massive train cancellations on a holiday departure weekend.
Especially since on the same weekend there is a national strike notice for the signalmen at the call of SUD-Rail, which reiterated Tuesday evening its desire to go all the way after a new meeting with the management. The other unions have not joined the movement, so it is difficult to anticipate the disruption it could cause between Thursday at 8 p.m. and Monday at 8 a.m. But a work stoppage of the signalmen, without whom the trains cannot circulate, can have serious consequences. SNCF Voyageurs ensures that it is still too early to communicate traffic forecasts.
On the side of the controllers, whose strike on the first weekend of December had caused the cancellation of nearly two thirds of the TGV and Intercités, the management issued several proposals for ending the crisis. The collective of controllers, which brings together around 3,400 members on Facebook, does not reveal its intentions and has until Thursday to give its answer. In the meantime, notices covering Christmas and New Year weekends have still not been lifted.
- Air France: strike notice from December 22 to January 2
Despite the holding of 14 meetings since last September and negotiations still in progress, the conflict between the management of Air France and part of the unions of hostesses and stewards seems to be bogged down. At this stage, it is difficult to imagine Unac and SNGAF, which together represent just over 50% of cabin crew (PNC), lifting their strike notice which runs from December 22 to January 2. “The strike is maintained,” assured AFP Anne Vildy, secretary general of Unac.
The agreement governing the working conditions of cabin crew came to an end at the end of October 2022 and management is negotiating a new one with the unions with the aim of concluding by March 2023. Until then, the ‘Unac and the SNGAF claim the “contractualization of their working conditions” which they consider threatened by the choice to place them under “management note”, therefore unilaterally modifiable, which the management of the company disputes. “Air France plans to transport all of its customers and does not foresee any cancellations at this stage”, assures the tricolor company despite everything. Other companies serving overseas territories are also threatened by strike action. This is the case for Corsair from December 16 to 22 and Air Antilles from December 17 to 22.
On the other hand, the conflict between the cabin crew and the management of the French subsidiary of easyJet seems to be resolved. “We are having encouraging discussions with the SNPNC and Unac unions,” the company’s management said on Tuesday. So far, no strike notice has been filed despite the threat to do so.
- RATP: a new strike “around January 10”
Public transport strikes are expected to continue into next year. All the RATP unions called on Wednesday to “continue and harden the strike movement from January 2023” after the November 10 strike on wages which had almost paralyzed the Paris metro. The strike could take place “around January 10”, warned a union source to AFP, the date chosen by the government to present its pension reform project against which all the unions plan to mobilize in the event of a decline. of legal age.
“Our trade unions (…) note that our demands (statutory upgrading, upgrading of the workforce, etc.) have not been heard”, denounce the CGT, FO, Unsa and La Base for the RER, gathered in inter-union, in a press release.
At the Mandatory Annual Negotiations (NAO) meeting on Friday, December 9, the management, which had already reassessed the value of the index point by 2.2% on July 1, proposed to extend this measure retroactively from January 1. 2022. With the purchasing power bonus of 500 euros for low wages already paid, the profit-sharing measure of 1,300 euros paid in May and the increase in various bonuses (night work, Sunday, etc.) and allowances (teleworking ), “these measures represent 200 million euros redistributed to the employees of the company in the form of remuneration” in 2022, assured the RATP. “The NAO (…) are far from satisfying the driving category”, however affirmed the inter-union.