The strike movement scheduled for next week at the SNCF could spread. The third representative organization within the public company, the SUD-Rail union, will in any case propose to the member railway workers a renewable strike from Tuesday, October 18, day of interprofessional strike to demand a rise in wages, organized in the furrow of the social movement affecting refineries and oil depots.
“We will hold general assemblies on Tuesday, October 18 all over France and we will ask the question of the renewable strike”, informed Agence France-Presse on Sunday, Fabien Villedieu, SUD-Rail union representative. According to him, this first day of mobilization at the SNCF “will be the first test, [car] a strike must already work well on the first day. There is a chance that this will continue fairly broadly until Wednesday”.
“The justice of the peace will be the railwayman”he summarized, specifying that his union is calling for an increase in “ 400 euros net more per month »despite the granting by the management of the SNCF, last July, of an average increase of 3.7% for low salaries and 2.2% for executives, after a day of strike which had disrupted departures on summer vacation.
“They say to themselves: the next ones are us”
Asked about possible disruptions that this movement could cause on the All Saints school holidays (which run from October 22 to November 7), Mr. Villedieu estimated that “the strike creates disturbances, it’s not a scoop”. But according to him, with ” strike [qui] starts Tuesday, [et] departures [en vacances] Friday “, that leaves “a few days of negotiations” possible for the management of the SNCF.
As of Thursday, the CGT-Cheminots, the first union of the SNCF, had called for the extension of the social movement to the rail sector, two days after the first requisitions of personnel in refineries and oil depots. “We are going to respond to the call to broaden the mobilization”, thus announced to World Laurent Brun, general secretary of the union.
“Railway workers project themselves a lot into wage demands and they are also revolted by the requisition. They say to themselves: the next ones are us”, he had supported, before also sketching the possibility of a renewable strike: “We will be on strike on Tuesday October 18 and maybe even from the 18th.”
Only the UNSA Ferroviaire has indicated that it does not wish to join the movement. “We want to mobilize in a unitary way on pensions, but on wages, it’s a business issue”underlined on Thursday an official of the second union of railway workers.