Watch out, bazaar!
SNCF controllers announced this Monday, at midday, the maintenance of strike notices for Christmas and New Year weekends, via a press release broadcast by SUD-Rail, while not calling for stop work.
A subtlety, incomprehensible for travelers, which aims to spare the goat and the cabbage.
Because internally, within the “national collective ASCT” (CNA) which brings together the striking controllers outside any trade union framework, no majority position has emerged.
Clearly, some railway workers wanted to continue the strike, others not.
This decision, which is ambiguous to say the least, allows each controller to assume their responsibilities without having to follow a national watchword.
Read also SNCF strike: why a train cannot run without a controller
It now remains to be seen what the traffic conditions will be for the next two weekends?
During the previous social movement of the controllers, at the beginning of December, the strike had been very followed among the 10,000 captains, with 60% of the TGVs and Intercités canceled.
This time, divided, the controllers should be less likely to stop work.
The movement should mainly affect the TGVs.
It is indeed on the high-speed lines that the dissatisfaction is the greatest.
If the captains of the TER, and in particular the youngest, believe that they have been heard by the management of the SNCF, this is not the case for those of the TGV.
The transport plan known from Thursday
During a meeting with the strikers on December 8, the SNCF proposed in particular to increase the work bonus for controllers by 600 euros per year, part of which would be integrated into the salary in 2024, as well as an additional allowance of 600 euros gross per year.
Other specific promotion measures have been put on the table in order to facilitate the career development of skippers.
From now on, the controllers who wish to go on strike have until Wednesday evening to inform management of their intention not to work.
In the process, the company will be able to distribute the transport plan, that is to say the list of trains that will not run next weekend.
Very bad news for the SNCF.
The two weekends that frame the end of year celebrations are traditionally among the busiest.
Internally, among the controllers, it's grimace soup.
"We see the limits of a movement built outside the unions," breathes a railway worker.
While the CNA collective had to consult its members via its strong Facebook page of its 3,500 subscribers, the referendum was cut short.
Soon enough, the organizers realized they had been hacked.
Several registrants were not controllers, or even railway workers.
“We will see how the movement, without a call for a clear strike, will be followed, analyzes an SNCF executive.
What is certain is that there is always dissatisfaction among the controllers”.