Saint-Denis (AFP)

"We ask for recognition of all the efforts we provide": in front of the headquarters of the SNCF in Saint-Denis, strikers Technicentre of Chatillon, whose work stoppage for more than a week disrupts the traffic of a large part of the TGV Atlantique, claim a gesture of the direction.

"We are proud to have been able to resist the steamroller," says Elvis Thoyer, CGT delegate, in the midst of about fifty people gathered Tuesday, including thirty from Chatillon (Hauts-de-Seine).

The plan of the management to denounce a local agreement, without consultation according to the unions, is at the origin of the strike without warning launched October 21 by 200 of the 700 or so employees of this maintenance center.

According to the SNCF, the service will remain very disturbed Wednesday, with three TGV on ten - like Monday and Tuesday - before an improvement expected Thursday (eight out of ten trains).

Faced with the bronca caused by his project, the local management of the SNCF quickly changed, putting under the carpet as of October 22 the suppression of 12 days of rest she wanted to establish in Châtillon in exchange for financial compensation .

But the movement has not weakened.

- "Fed up" -

"These 12 days is an extra day of rest per month for employees who work 40 hours a week, who work nights and weekends," said Mr. Thoyer, deploring the "lack of respect" of The direction.

Among the employees - mostly men - who came to Saint-Denis to ask to be received by management, without success, many are low profile and prefer not to speak to the press.

Rachid, a thirty-year-old who only reveals his name, receives a "brutal strike but reflects a flabby" in the establishment.

The strikers ask the management for the payment of strike days, which it rejects, but also the guarantee of not being subject to disciplinary sanctions because of their work stoppage without notice and a "revaluation", it that is to say a bonus of 3,000 euros.

Gwendoline Cazenave, director of TGV Atlantique, told AFP that "the dialogue continues but in a situation where trains are running". She pledged to "continue working on working conditions as soon as work resumes".

A call that the strikers ignore for now.

"We are aware of what happens to all French who are on vacation and who are stuck, who can not leave or go home," says Karim. For him, the management "despises railwaymen but it is also a contempt for all French who are on vacation".

- "Put the bag" -

At the Technicentre of Landy (Saint-Denis) also, "the anger is there", estimates Fabien Monteil, elected South-Rail in this establishment in charge of the maintenance of TGV of the North axis, Eurostar and Thalys.

"Nobody wants to enter the maintenance, we see a lot of resignations because the salary is extremely low, the working conditions are increasingly degraded and we are understaffed," he explains.

"The hiring is at the Smic, I have 20 years of seniority and I touch 1,600 net euros per month," says the unionist came to support his colleagues Chatillon. It does not exclude a spontaneous movement also to the Landy, outside the legal framework of the notice of strike.

"We do our job delegate union but if people want to ask the bag (stop work, ed), we will not hold them," he says.

At the Southeast European Technicentre, also in the Paris region, Christophe Huguet deplores the intensification of night work and "a difficult family life when making the 3X8". In this maintenance center TGV East and Southeast, his union, Sud-Rail, has filed a request for immediate consultation, mandatory step before a possible strike notice.

© 2019 AFP