The CGT calls on the railway workers to a national strike on Thursday, July 1.
This includes calling on the management of the SNCF for a general increase in wages, hiring and "real negotiations for a high level social status," the union announced on Wednesday.
This movement will follow a regional mobilization Monday "throughout the Ile-de-France", where the drivers of RER and suburban trains are called to strike by several unions. They believe that "the cup is full," protests SUD-Rail in a leaflet, joined according to the railway lines by the CGT, Unsa and CFDT. This call will be "very followed" and the movement will be "very impactful", estimates Fabien Dumas, Federal Secretary of SUD-Rail. "There is a general grumbling, a fed up", in an "explosive" climate, with "uncertainties about the future" with the opening to competition, he detailed.
Launched by the CGT-Cheminots alone, the appeal of July 1 "is the result of a certain increase in pressure on several sites in May and June, which illustrates the increase in internal tension" at the SNCF, declared the general secretary of this union, Laurent Brun.
“It is also a pivotal period of discussions on the future social status of the railway group”, he added.
“Against the social jungle, for our wages, our jobs, our rights, for a social status of the railway workers: all on strike!
“, Urges the CGT-Cheminots in its call to stop work.
The first SNCF union previously organized a rally on Tuesday in front of the SNCF headquarters in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
The CGT-Cheminots deplores the silence of the management
Among its ten or so demands, the CGT-Cheminots asks the SNCF to “stop reorganizations”, the “re-internalization” of the activities entrusted to subcontractors, the maintenance of “traffic facilities” (free tickets or reduced price for railway workers and their relatives), as well as "stopping" the creation of subsidiaries to respond to calls for tenders for regional train contracts, as part of the opening up of competition, according to the press release.
The union also wants "a positioning of the management to prevent the government from implementing a new reform" of the "special scheme" of retirement of railway workers, "through its pension decree project". The CGT-Cheminots notes that it alerted management in mid-May to "the growing unease within (the) company" and says that it only received "silence" in response, despite "multiple arrests. ".
In Ile-de-France, the call for a strike by drivers relays demands that may vary according to the lines, but "the lowest common denominator" to all, "it is the opening to competition" and reorganizations operated with a view to "a SNCF cut-up sale" during calls for tenders, said Fabien Dumas. “Nothing is done to reassure us, there is no guarantee for the railway workers. "
