Paris (AFP)

Is the SNCF a barrel of powder ready to explode? Abandonment of positions in cascade, successive reorganizations, malaise of the employees: the conflict that occurred after the accident of TER is part of a context of social malaise denounced for months by the unions.

The railway workers "are worried, angry", "the social situation is alarming", warned at the end of May the four representative unions of the SNCF (CGT, Unsa, SUD and CFDT). Remarks made during their first unitary press conference since the great strike of spring 2018, which failed to block the vote of the rail reform.

Guillaume Pepy, the boss of SNCF - who will pass the baton on 1 November to Jean-Pierre Farandou - himself acknowledged that "there were many questions" and, "frankly, worry" among the employees before opening to competition and the end of hirings to the status of railway worker.

Five months later, an accident of TER in the Ardennes sets fire to the powders. Wounded, with no means of communication in working order, the driver was alone on board last Wednesday with some 70 passengers, without a controller. Touched on one leg, he must help travelers, including a dozen wounded, and secure the area to avoid an accident.

The next day, drivers in the area stop work by exercising their right of withdrawal to warn about safety. The movement is a stain of oil. "With the word of mouth and the generalized ras-le-bol on the degradation of the security", this "deposit of bag" is "spreading to all the country", warns Thursday evening Laurent Brown, general secretary CGT-Cheminots, the first union of the SNCF.

Result: Friday is a shambles in train stations, with national and regional traffic disrupted, the eve of school holidays. Disturbances that will continue the following days gradually fading.

- "An explosive situation" -

This accident was "the accident of too much", summarized Erik Meyer of SUD-Rail (3rd union of the SNCF). This "major security event" was "the spark" in "a degraded social climate and an inefficient social dialogue," said Sébastien Mariani of the CFDT-Cheminots (4th union).

The "social context is tense and anxiety" at the SNCF, where "employees need security, listening, transparency on the protection of both jobs and working conditions," said the railway Unsa (2nd union ).

In total, there was "between 15,000 and 20,000 warning rights on 23,000 drivers and controllers," said Laurent Brun Monday to AFP. "The extent of these warning rights is the result of a combination of factors: the deterioration of security experienced" by railway workers "with fears for their personal lives, and more generally the impression that we are demand more and more with more and more contempt, "he said. "The situation is explosive," he warned.

The same goes for the CFE-CGC executive union (not representative): "The reaction of the railway workers is the result of a serious security event, associated with a social climate degraded by the inexorable decrease of the workforce (-2,700 jobs in 2018, -2.200 in 2017, editor's note), particularly those relating to the safety of railway operations and a deafened SNCF + management to the unions' proposals ".

In addition, there are uncertainties about the railway sector. Less than four months after the reform came into force, the new social framework at SNCF remains in the draft stage. Ditto for the national collective agreement of the railway branch. A meeting on pay sector has also been canceled Monday because of the crisis of the weekend at the SNCF.

The mobilization of all railway workers will be evaluated on December 5: three representative unions (CGT, Unsa and SUD) call for a strike, particularly against the pension reform. The last two unions even plead for a renewable movement.

© 2019 AFP