(Paris) Rail traffic is severely disrupted in France due to a strike by controllers which forces the national company to cancel 60% of its trains on Friday and this weekend, a movement which could be renewed during the holiday season. ‘year.
The SNCF thus plans, from Friday to Sunday, between 1 train in 2 and 1 in 4 on the high-speed TGV network and 1 in 2 on the classic interregional network (Intercités), as well as the cancellation of all night trains.
Internationally, the company foresees normal traffic for Eurostar to Great Britain and Thalys (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany), 1 out of 3 TGVs to Switzerland, 1 out of 2 to Germany, 1 out of 3 to Italy and no traffic to Spain.
“In total, more than 80% of us are on strike,” assured AFP Nicolas Limon, one of the six founding members of the National Collective ASCT (CNA), launched in September on Facebook outside of any trade union framework and which now has nearly 3,000 members.
According to a source close to management, 42% of skippers were on strike on Friday, a figure that is expected to rise over the weekend.
A “gradual recovery” is envisaged on Monday, with 3 out of 4 trains to all TGV axes.
This social movement relates to wage demands, career development and, overall, greater recognition of the specificities of the function of the some 10,000 train managers (controllers) of the SNCF who have an essential function in terms of safety of the traffic and passengers.
These captains, without whom the trains cannot leave, have already filed strike notices for the weekends of Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The management of the SNCF regretted the maintenance of this movement “while concrete measures” were presented to the unions. The striking organizations, for their part, deplored having obtained only “crumbs”.
“It’s a strike that we didn’t see coming, neither us nor the unions”, acknowledged Thursday the CEO of SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, during a conference organized by the magazine Challenges.
“We are not considered to be traveling personnel when we work three weekends a month and do not sleep at home ten evenings in the month”, explains Nicolas Limon.