The mobilized professionals will go on strike Thursday evening and until Monday morning. Traffic will be normal on almost all of the territory.
A traffic “slightly disturbedis announced by the SNCF for Friday, December 16. Despite a social movement at the initiative of SNCF Réseau switchers which will begin Thursday, December 15 at 8 p.m., nine out of ten trains will be provided on the TGV Atlantique axis, including two out of three trains on the links between Paris and Bordeaux. Everywhere else, everything will benormal or near-normal“, announces the SNCF, on the TGV lines as well as on the Intercités lines, day and night. With regard to the Transilien and TER lines, the information will only be communicated on Thursday at the end of the day.
The SNCF also says to itself “well aware of the inconvenience caused by this movement“, and specifies that “travelers whose train is canceled will be able to benefit from a 100% refund of the price of their ticket, or a free exchange on all trains where there is still space“.
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SNCF signalmen operate the network: without them, the trains cannot run. They demand better recognition of their profession and an improvement in their working conditions. The CGT-Cheminots for its part described the management’s proposals as “insufficientand filed local notices but did not call for a national movement. The other Unsa-Ferroviaire and CFDT-Cheminots organizations are not calling for a strike and signed the statement of conclusion after a meeting on Tuesday with the group’s management.
The management proposed to the unions to allocate the signalmen a “service discount» of ten minutes each time the service is taken. Traffic officers, who work in 3×8 shifts, must indeed arrive or leave later at the time of the relief to pass the baton to the next team. SUD-Rail required 20 minutes. Another measure put on the table by SNCF Réseau: “a fixed monthly allowance of 60 euros (gross)» paid from June 2023 and which will be permanent in order to recognize the specificities of the profession. A measurement “far from meeting our demand (300 euros per month in cash for retirement and maintained in the event of incapacity)“, indicated SUD-Rail. Unsa-Ferroviaire, which took part in the round table, described these measures as “real progress“.
“This is a major step forward on the part of the company, especially when we know the problems of SNCF Réseauwhose finances are limited, assured Yoann Saugues, federal secretary Unsa-Ferroviaire. Another risk of social conflict weighs on the SNCF at the end of the year with this time the controllers who threaten to strike on Christmas and New Year weekends. However, the management of SNCF Voyageurs which deals with the personnel trains in the public group described the exchanges that took place with the unions and a collective of controllers as “positive and good level“. “We are really not far from an agreement” despite “some sticking points“, declared to AFP Nicolas Limon, one of the founders of the collective. Management gave the parties a week to decide.
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