Nicolas Bouzou 9:49 a.m., December 17, 2021

Between the strike of justice, that of the school and recently that of the SNCF, the social climate tends in France for a few months.

A corollary of growth, which the unions want to see reflected on wages.

For our editorialist Nicolas Bouzou, social movements will continue in 2022.

EDITORIAL

I think that everything is in place for the social climate of 2022 to be demanding. First thing: we have economic growth. In 2022, we will have between 3 and 3.5% growth. It should be understood that the social climate generally deteriorates when there is economic activity. Quite simply because this is where there are things to share and salary demands that can be met. "Sharing the fruits of growth", says Bruno Le Maire. So there will be growth. There is also inflation and this phenomenon weighs on purchasing power. Inflation in France is around 3% per cent. And my diagnosis is probably that it will last a bit.

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We also have salary difficulties.

You have people in our country who work 39 or 40 hours a week and at Christmas time cannot afford to buy presents for their children.

And besides, we can see that purchasing power, it is interesting to note, has become the number one subject of the presidential campaign.

This is what all opinion polls show.

So all that ends up in the street.

There have already been a lot of strikes in recent weeks: justice, school, garbage collectors in Marseille, the West Indies and in the private sector also at Leroy Merlin, for example. 

There have never been so many strikes

In France, we have the greatest conflict of all the OECD countries in the private sector with 114 days of strike action per 1,000 employees. So imagine if we add the public sector. I would like to tell you all the same that this social question, this question of wages and therefore this question of strikes are a global question. We find this question in France, but also in the United States. There have never been so many strikes for several decades.

Does this situation justify the current social movement of the SNCF?

No, precisely, because at the SNCF, there is nothing to share.

The losses, after 3 billion last year will be between 1.5 and 2 billion euros this year, even though the prices of train tickets are insane.

When I made my reservations to go to the South, frankly, I felt like I was buying the TGV and not tickets for the TGV.

The SNCF strike, an abuse of a dominant position

So, the railway workers may not be aware of this since they have what are called traffic facilities, that is to say, they do not pay the same prices as us. It is still a little surprising for a company which has a public service mission. And let me tell you that the bonuses that have just been obtained - 600 euros for drivers and 300 euros for controllers - have been snatched away by blackmail on the backs of people who are exhausted by the crisis and who will not be able to get back to their families this Friday.

These bonuses will also feed the debt of SNCF, which is already almost 40 billion euros in total.

This is not healthy negotiation, it is abuse of a dominant position.

Hopefully, the brand new competition from Trenitalia will put things in order.