Saturday, the unions claimed the right of railway workers to exercise their right of withdrawal. For their part, the management of SNCF and the Prime Minister were talking about hijacking and strikes that did not say his name. Sunday noon yet the Secretary of State for Transport announced on BFMTV that the discussions were progressing. So after a third day of disturbances at the SNCF, are we going towards a way out of the crisis?
In fact there have been exchanges in recent hours between the different parties: the SNCF sent Sunday morning proposals to the social partners in writing. In particular, it promises to enhance the safety of staff when they are alone on board trains, which was a very strong demand from the teams after Wednesday's accident. It is also committed to accelerating the planned recruitment of staff.
Towards a return to normal ... except for TER?
"It's going in the right direction," says UNSA. "Everything can not change in two minutes but we will be very vigilant about the application of these measures." The union calls very clearly staff to return to work, and Monday, October 21, the situation should be much more normal than today: all the TGV, Ouigo and Transiliens should roll. For the TER, however, nothing was guaranteed Sunday night. Throughout the day, the situation remained very difficult in some regions, such as Occitanie or Champagne Ardenne.
SNCF also announces additional commercial measures to compensate customers who have been stranded in recent days: 100% of tickets will be refunded, including for Ouigo.
Other disruptions to come on December 5th
In the coming weeks, however, it will be necessary to expect major disruptions: the CGT, in particular, calls for a "majority and massive" mobilization on 5 December. The goal: to protest the pension reform. An industry expert interviewed by Europe 1 recognizes this: the movement this weekend was a "training" for early December.