Rail strikes like those currently suffered in Germany belong to France like the famous high-speed trains with the abbreviation “TGV”.

However, they are much older.

Since 1947 there has not been a year in France without rail strikes.

Even in the pandemic year of 2020, a number of railway unions considered it necessary to call for work stoppages in September - although the government financed the short-time working, the state railway company SNCF took 35 billion euros in debts and it received billions of euros as part of its current economic and investment program. Allocations from the crisis drives.

Strikes also broke out again at the beginning of July 2021.

Christian Schubert

Business correspondent in Paris.

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Unlike in the past, the work stops rarely paralyze entire route networks because all strikers have to announce their participation 48 hours in advance and the SNCF can therefore reschedule and deploy additional trained office workers as train drivers. Nevertheless, cancellations and delays regularly cause a lot of trouble for travelers. At the beginning of last year, the SNCF was forced to launch a charm offensive because the image of the railway was badly damaged due to long blockades against President Emmanuel Macron's rail reform and against the later canceled pension reform. For a week she had to offer a quarter of her long-haul seats for a maximum of 35 euros.

France thus offers a lot of illustrative material for a railway system that is partly under the control of the trade unions. In France, railroad workers have generally lost influence over the years. Unlike in the past, they are no longer allowed to have a say in internal promotions, for example. The slowly increasing opening up to private competitors of the state railway SNCF is causing its influence to wane further. However, unions desperately struggling against their loss of meaning can be a big problem for customers - and thus for the government as well. Many French see it as their duty to end particularly unpleasant strikes.

You know that the most important decisions taken by the SNCF state railways need the blessing of the Ministry of Transport.

Therefore, the government has to make fresh money on a regular basis when angry railway workers are to be appeased.

The regional strike that began at the end of June of this year and which took on national proportions on July 1, was quickly brought to an end thanks to fat bonuses.

For example, the inspectors received a special bonus of 370 euros for July in addition to increased monthly surcharges.

This is intended to compensate for the premium losses caused by the pandemic.

Competitive struggles increase the willingness to strike

The unions do not only fight for the welfare of the railway workers as a whole, but also for their influence. Competitive struggles such as in Germany between the GDL and the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) have long made France more willing to strike. "The long-established unions have come under pressure from new organizations," reports trade union expert Dominique Andolfatto from the University of Bourgogne in Dijon.