During the fourth day of mobilization against the pension reform, Saturday February 11, the representative unions of the SNCF do not call for a strike but enjoin the railway workers “to participate in demonstrations throughout the territory”they announced on Monday.
An announcement that follows the fears expressed by travelers. With the exception of Ile-de-France and Occitanie, most of the country will indeed be on vacation on Saturday, on the first day of winter vacation for zone B (Aix-Marseille, Nantes, Rennes, Lille, Strasbourg…). The unions have therefore decided not to penalize travelers and denounce “the demagogic controversies over the right to strike” initiated by the government.
“The government is already beginning to castigate the strikes and blockades, pointing to the crossover of February holidaymakers hoping to ‘turn’ public opinion”wrote CGT-Cheminots, UNSA-Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and CFDT-Cheminots in a joint press release. “It’s a waste of time and it’s a bad calculation! », they insisted.
“Save strike days”
“We talk about pension reform and they answer us hardening the right to strike. They would like to make the movement unpopular, so we’re not going to give them that pleasure.”Fabien Dumas, federal secretary SUD-Rail, told Agence France-Presse.
“There is also a second objective: to save strike days for employees, because here we are on a middle-distance race and not on a sprint”explained the general secretary of the UNSA-Ferroviaire, Didier Mathis.
A strike is already planned for Tuesday at the call of all the unions of the public group, in the wake of the third day of national mobilization against the pension reform. The SNCF plans to run one out of two TGVs on average and three out of ten TERs, a slight improvement in traffic compared to the strike on Tuesday, January 31.
Wednesday, February 8, another day of strike is organized but this time at the call of only CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail. All the trade unions have planned to meet again to consider the continuation of the mobilization on Wednesday afternoon.