The railway workers want to put pressure on Tuesday on the eve of a meeting with management on bonuses linked to the Olympics. They are demanding them for “all railway workers in the region because they too will contribute to the success of the entire organization”.
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“There will be 4 000 additional trains, 10 millions of tourists who will arrive, necessarily additional work so we need employment resources to be able to ensure a quality public service”argues Romain Pitelet, deputy general secretary of the CGT-Cheminots, Tuesday May 21 on France Bleu Paris while a strike affects the Île-de-France commuter trains operated by the SNCF.
The social movement starts the day before negotiations on bonuses during the Olympic Games. According to Romain Pitelet, “We have been asking management for months, whether at the national or local level, to present us with additional means to be able to carry out this additional work and today we do not have all the answers. Obviously, this creates high expectations on the part of colleagues”he describes.
The SNCF management offers a bonus of 50 euros gross per day during the Olympics, but “it’s not just about the bonus, it’s about employment, working conditions during the Gamesspecifies the deputy secretary general, it’s about hiring and additional means of organizing work that can respond to all of that.”
The railway workers fear a “deregulation during and after the Olympics”. “We are particularly worried because all the leave refused during the Olympics will have to be given afterwards,” he analyzes. The September return to school risks, for example, being complicated, according to the CGT-Cheminots. “We are particularly concerned about the number of railway workers available to provide public service [à la rentrée]”continues Romain Pitelet.
Tuesday in Île-de-France, the CGT-Cheminots does not yet give a precise figure for the number of strikers, but according to Romain Pitelet, the train drivers are mobilized “up to 70-80% on average”. Furthermore, are also mobilized “the commercial agents of the stations who will be on the front line during the period, and ask for additional resources. And then there are the agents who maintain the rolling stock, the maintenance of the trains, who, too, are extremely requested and awaiting a certain number of responses”, explains the deputy secretary general.
For the CGT, the railway workers of Île-de-France are not the only ones concerned, “we need compensation for the railway workers who are most impacted during this period, and we need remuneration for all railway workers in the region because they too will contribute to the success of the entire organizationcontinues Romain Pitelet. They will welcome tourists all over France, whether in Bordeaux, in the depths of the Pyrenees, in the depths of the Vosges, or in the middle of Auvergne, tourists will wander around during this period. For him, “it is indeed all railway workers throughout France who will contribute and create wealth in the country and in the company and they must also have a contribution”concludes Romain Pitelet.