Sword of Damocles To avoid this catastrophic scenario, salary negotiations open this Wednesday
Travelers line up to take the train at the station of Lyon to Paris, December 2, 2022 during a strike organized by SNCF controllers. — STÉPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP
A strike on Christmas and New Year weekends is one of the worst scenarios for SNCF management and for users. Yet it’s the threat of a strike. this precise moment that railway workers use as a form of pressure. To avoid this catastrophic scenario, wage negotiations are opening this Wednesday. “I say this for the future, for the two weekends at the end of the year in particular, we must avoid that,” the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, Wednesday afternoon.
But if a first increase had been granted to Following a strike in July, inflation has not slowed since, even reaching +6.2% in November over one year. So the unions come to the bargaining tables with a long list of demands.
Salary increase, 13th month, etc.
If the CGT-Cheminots asks for a salary increase at least equivalent to inflation and above all, retroactivity; on January 1, 2022, SUD-Rail trade unionists are asking for an additional 400 euros gross per month for everyone and the CFDT-Cheminots a 13th month in addition to salary increases. As for l’Unsa-Ferroviaire, the only union not calling for the strike, she wants to see wages increase by at least 5%.
“Warning, if salaries go up too much, eventually ticket prices will go up too. It’s a cost, the payroll”, warned group CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou last Thursday. C&édric Robert, federal secretary of the CGT-Cheminots, hopes that, as of Wednesday, “very clear announcements on a general increase in wages and work bonuses” will be announced.
“There is a social dialogue SNCF, which exists and works well,” Clément Beaune, calling on everyone to work at; a compromise because “the French would not understand in a period which is not easy, which succeeds two Christmases who have already been complicated by Covid-19, let us add complications to them.