It’s a new “Facebook strike”. The controllers, as in December 2022, mobilized on social networks, always at the initiative of the ASCT national collective (agents of the commercial train service), the CNA. This collective brings together 4,000 to 5,000 agents out of 8,000 controllers. They no longer communicate on Facebook, but rather on WhatsApp or Telegram loops. As the CNA was unable to negotiate with the SNCF Voyageurs company, the CGT and SUD-Rail unions took over, both to file the strike notice and to initiate negotiations with management.
A management which does not recognize the collective and is reluctant to speak to it directly. But this double mediation complicates, once again, the exit from the crisis. The strike will therefore take place this weekend and will be well attended: more than 70% of controllers have given notice according to the union organizations.
Joined by The worldOlivier, one of the controllers at the origin of the collective, who does not wish to give his last name in accordance with the rule given by the group, returns to the reasons for the strike and denounces the attitude of the CEO of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou. According to him, the latter refuses dialogue and does not respond to the simple demands of the controllers. He hopes that discussions with the unions will resume in March and will be more constructive, failing which the CNA does not rule out asking the union organizations to file a new strike notice “for a big weekend in April”.
End-of-career planning
However, SNCF management has announced an acceleration in the recruitment of controllers (200 more in 2024, after 653 recruitments in 2023). And Jean-Pierre Farandou, after having received all the union organizations, announced a new bonus of 400 euros (in addition to that of the same amount paid in December) to all employees, as well as 1,200 euros of profit-sharing. Management has also released the possibility of granting 3,000 additional promotions which will allow agents who benefit from them to see their salary increase by 60 to 80 euros net per month. The CEO finally announced one hundred additional recruitments to the railway police.
“What does this have to do with what we are asking for? »asks the CNA spokesperson. In the fall of 2022, controllers mobilized for better recognition of their profession and its constraints. It took the Christmas strike for management to concede a 60 euro gross monthly increase, review career progression and better take into account bonuses in remuneration in the event of sick leave. But it also committed to opening negotiations on the adjustment of the end of careers of controllers in the second half of 2023.
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