Traffic will be “partly disrupted” at SNCF and “almost” normal at RATP. In Paris, garbage collectors resume the renewable strike Thursday, to protest against the pension reform.
After three months and eleven days of mobilization, the unions are back. They call to stop work and to demonstrate Thursday, April 13, on the eve of the publication of the conclusions of the Constitutional Council on pension reform. Trade unions have also made it known that they support “all inter-union mobilization actions and initiatives, including April 14, to win the withdrawal of this reform”.
>> Pension reform: the political class “suspended” on the decision of the Constitutional Council, arbitrator in spite of itself of the crisis
The unions point to a “new context”, in their joint statement of April 6. “The repeated request to withdraw the reform was met with a clear refusal from the executive”regrets the inter-union. “This is a denial and total contempt for the massive rejection carried by all our organizations, by workers and by public opinion.”
Between 400,000 and 600,000 demonstrators are expected Thursday in France, according to a note from territorial intelligence. At the dawn of this twelfth day of mobilization, franceinfo takes stock of the disruptions to be expected in transport, education and in the waste sector.
Train traffic “partly disrupted” at SNCF
Train traffic will be “partly disturbed”, Thursday, at the SNCF. The railway company announces 3 TER out of 5 and 4 TGV out of 5. It does not plan any night trains and only one Intercity day train out of 5. Passengers traveling on Eurostar and Thalys will experience conditions “almost normal”. In the Paris region, the SNCF provides a service “normal to almost normal” on the RER B, but only three quarters of the trains or a little less on the RER A, C and D as well as on the Transilien lines N, P, H, L and R.
“The railway workers are very mobilized, there is little chance that Thursday will be an exception to the rule. As it is just before the decision of the Constitutional Council, there will be people in the street”estimated Fabien Dumas, federal secretary SUD Rail, third representative union at the SNCF.
“Almost normal” traffic at RATP
In Paris and Ile-de-France, there will be little disruption in transport. The RATP expects traffic “almost normal” for the metro and the RER. Only lines 8 and 13 will be slightly disrupted with 2 out of 3 trains, according to the forecasts of the management. Traffic will be almost normal on the RER A and B lines. Finally, trams and buses will run normally, according to the RATP, whose agents had already mobilized a little less during the day of action on April 6.
20% of flights canceled at Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse airports
In the sky, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has requested the cancellation of around 20% of flights from airlines for the airports of Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse. The DGAC warns, however, that disruptions and delays are to be expected and invites travelers who can to postpone their trip. The Ile-de-France airports of Orly and Roissy are not concerned. The magnitude of these preventive cancellations is slightly lower than that of April 6, when four regional platforms were affected.
Parisian garbage collectors relaunch the renewable strike
The CGT of the Paris waste and sanitation sector is calling for a new renewable strike against the pension reform, both for garbage collectors and incinerator staff in the Paris region. In March, a three-week strike caused a pile of trash cans in the streets of the capital, before being suspended on March 29.
In other cities, trash cans continue to pile up. In Saint-Etienne (Loire), the agents of the metropolis in charge of garbage collection have been on renewable strike for 12 days. In Nantes, two incineration plants were blocked on Wednesday, delaying the treatment of waste. The garbage collectors will also walk out to join the 12th day of mobilization on Thursday.
The strike resumes at the Donges refinery
In recent days, refinery employees, on renewable strike, had decided to return to work, after weeks of mobilization. After suspending their movement at the end of last week, the unions at the Donges refinery, near Saint-Nazaire, however called for a 48-hour strike on Thursday and Friday, reports France 3 Pays-de-Loire.
Education unions call for mobilization
As for the last days of action, we must also expect strikes in schools. The estimate of the number of strikers has not yet been communicated, but the movement will probably be less followed than during the last day of mobilization, zone A having started its Easter holidays.
“The teaching staff remains very mobilized”nevertheless assures the SNUipp in a press release titled “We don’t give up !”. The union calls on school teachers “to go on strike very massively on Thursday 13 to reaffirm our rejection of the substance of the reform and our attachment to democracy. And to come together, once the decision [du Conseil constitutionnel] returned, everywhere in France, on Friday April 14″. Disturbances are also to be expected for after-school reception and catering.
In colleges and high schools, the Snes and the FSU call on teachers to follow the watchwords of the inter-union and to strike. The two unions said to each other “determined to obtain the withdrawal of the reform”, in a press release. For its part, the national high school student movement called for demonstrations on Thursday, and at the “blockade of all high schools on Wednesday 12, Thursday 13 and Friday 14 April”, in a tweet.