towards a strong mobilization of railway workers on May 21 in Île-de-France

A few months before the Olympics, railway workers demand salary increases and bonuses to match

While for the Olympic Games the SNCF management is only offering a bonus of €50 gross per day worked, the railway workers consider this sum to be largely insufficient. SUD Rail claims double the net amount, including rest, while the CGT also claims a significant improvement in Olympic bonuses. These are more than legitimate demands, because rail workers know that they will be on the front line and are already seeing their workload increase in preparation for the Olympics. At SNCF, which manages all suburban trains in Ile-de-France (RER C, D and E, and part of RER A and B), it is estimated that 4,500 additional trains will run this month of August by compared to a normal summer.

Furthermore, given the large influx of tourists, huge profits will be made by the company. From there, there is no reason why the agents should not see the color of this money. On the contrary, because it is thanks to their work that the trains will run this summer.

But the demands are not limited to Olympic bonuses. Indeed, SUD Rail and most CGT sections are also demanding the abandonment of the bill restricting the right to strike in transport which was recently adopted in committee by the Senate and which, if it were to be definitively adopted, would represent a historic attack against the right to strike of railway workers and all workers in France.

Barely a few months after the NAO (mandatory annual negotiations) which only allowed agents to obtain an increase of 1.8%, SUD Rail is also demanding a general increase in salaries of €400.

Finally, certain local unions such as the SUD Rail Paris Nord union have included free transport for users during the Games in their appeal. An important demand, in a context where the prices of metro tickets in Ile de France continue to increase and where the announcement of the doubling of the ticket price during the Games has legitimately aroused significant anger among users.

A first “inter-business” date to unify the growing anger at the SNCF

This day takes place in a particular context at the SNCF. In recent months, several strike movements have broken out within the company, in different sectors, reflecting strong anger among railway workers, both regarding salaries which do not keep pace with inflation, but also more largely in a context of deterioration of their working conditions and significant loss of skills in recent years.

In January, it was the tech centers who massively walked off the job for their salaries and who finally partially won their case, on the basis of the first walkouts and the threat of well-attended days of strikes.

The controllers followed suit in February, with a well-attended strike in the TGV and Intercités sector, intended to enforce the promises made by management during the conflict the previous winter.

Finally, it was the switchers who went on strike on February 23 and 24, putting at the heart of their demands the question of working conditions, arduousness and that of wages.

At the same time, several local strikes emerged, such as the strike of drivers in Nice or that of railway workers working on line B of the RER in Ile de France.

These different categorical strikes highlighted the issues and demands of the different trades and created undeniable pressure on management. But the more corporatist demands they make and the fact that they express themselves in a dispersed order, rather than seeking to unify the anger of the different sectors around transversal demands and common dates, have allowed the management to play the division by giving a little to some what it refuses to others, even if it had to give in on certain demands.

The emergence of this type of categorical strike is explained in particular by the weight of past defeats, in a context where railway workers have not experienced a major industrial victory for more than 20 years. The idea, understandable, is that in the absence of being able to achieve real victories at the company level, for all agents, we should instead try to achieve some improvements at the local level, for our profession. However, the defeats of recent years can be explained more by the losing strategy of the traditional leaderships of the labor movement than by the omnipotence of the leadership which would make it impossible to think of an inter-professional and national strike, the only way to obtain important victories. .

From this point of view, next Tuesday’s strike is very interesting since it constitutes the first day of inter-professional strike since the fight against pension reform, even if the impact remains for the moment concentrated on the island of France. It can thus be a first opportunity to take up the challenge of uniting the anger that exists widely in the company around common demands. A general meeting of railway workers will be held at 10 a.m. at Gare du Nord, as well as at Gare de Lyon, and will therefore allow agents to meet and discuss the future, followed by joint action for all regional railway workers. Parisian who met at noon on the square in front of Gare Saint Lazare.

Towards the construction of a greater balance of power?

This day of strike was instigated and campaigned by the local and inter-union sections, the federations – on the SUD side as well as the CGT Cheminots – did not call for it as such. However, the day promises to be very well attended, particularly in Ile de France, which testifies to the desire to fight which exists at the base.

While the bonuses offered are currently very low, this first day could be an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a more significant movement. The railway workers know that they are essential to the successful holding of the Games, while the management of the SNCF and the government are feverish.

Indeed, two months before the Games, the capacity of public transport to cope with the tourist influx is still uncertain, the work having fallen behind schedule. Management also knows that anger is growing within the company and it may therefore be forced to let go in order to avoid a harsher strike which would be a major problem for the government. The recent agreement on the end of careers under the threat of a strike by controllers illustrates this excitement.

Furthermore, users and all workers have every interest in supporting this strike: on the one hand because the agents are fighting to defend the quality of service, which concerns us all, but also because this sector blocking could play an important role in dealing a blow to the government and showing the way to other sectors of the population by drawing them in, as it has done in the past.

In a period where the reactionary and austerity offensives of the government and the far right follow one another, the railway workers have the merit of putting the question of the strike back on the agenda and of establishing in the landscape the possibility of obtaining progress, going against any form of resignation.