The strike at the call of all the unions of the RATP severely disrupted this Thursday, November 10, the circulation of the Parisian metros and RERs, an impact which contrasted with the weak mobilization of the national day of action organized in parallel by the CGT.
Chaos was however avoided in the morning in Ile-de-France, where many employees had obviously followed the recommendations to telecommute. Others chose walking, biking, driving, or a day off. Five lines were closed (2, 8, 10, 11 and 12), the others only running during peak hours, with a severely degraded service.
A movement organized by the CGT
All the unions (CGT, FO, Unsa, Solidaires) of the RATP had long called for mobilization to demand wage increases and improved working conditions. At the same time, the CGT had organized, alone, a new national day of interprofessional mobilization on wages, even if in certain departments, it was joined by the FSU and Solidaires.
” There is a real problem of purchasing power in this country, it is only by increasing wages that we can solve it “, Hammered the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez, in the parade of Nîmes, where he had gone to meet the strikers of the CHU.
Few protesters in the streets
As on the previous day of October 27 – 14,000 demonstrators in the provinces and 1,360 in Paris – few people took to the streets. The police counted a thousand demonstrators in Lyon, 650 in Lille, 300 in Bordeaux. In Paris, they were 10,000 according to the CGT (the police had not yet given figures in the afternoon).
Once you’ve paid your rent and bills, you’re left with nothing
Report in the Parisian procession
Present in the Parisian procession, the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel called on the employees to ” reoccupy roundabouts and public space “. The deputy from the North has sorry we weren’t all together “. The secretary general of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot, had in fact not called for this national mobilization, criticizing these days of action ” leapfrog “.
However, he made the trip to the RATP to support his majority troops among the drivers and greeted “ full mobilization “. The representative unions (CGT, FO and Unsa) of the Parisian management are demanding salary increases as a priority, but also an improvement in working conditions and recruitment. ” Today is a big warning shot and we hope they will hear it “, declared the general secretary of the CGT-RATP, Bertrand Hammache.
The RATP does not envisage a new salary increase in the immediate future (+5.2% in 2022 according to management) but Jean Castex, whose appointment as head of the management was validated by Parliament this Wednesday, November 9 , has indicated that it will open negotiations as early as December. The other reason for mobilization was the future pension reform with a possible postponement of the legal retirement age and the end of special schemes.
(With AFP)