Paris (AFP)
Invocations of the right of withdrawal, strike without notice and an announced mobilization against the pension reform: the new boss of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, will make its entry on a social ground undermined, in full railway reform.
"There is no social crisis at the SNCF", insists Guillaume Pepy, who will officially pass the reins of the company on Friday to Jean-Pierre Farandou, former boss of Keolis, a subsidiary of the SNCF specialized in transport in France. common.
"The social climate is extremely tense, the company moves in all directions and the employees do not recognize themselves in the company," is the contrary Olivier Depoulain, Unsa railway, the second union railwaymen. "The discomfort is very deep, at all levels of the company," he says.
A symptom of this "general fatigue", the social protest at the SNCF has taken unusual forms in recent weeks, starting with the right of withdrawal - a "surprise" strike, according to Mr. Pepy - which has been argued controllers and drivers across France after the collision of a TER with an exceptional road convoy in the Ardennes which caused several injuries.
- "Cocotte-minute" -
This episode, which disrupted rail traffic at the beginning of the school holidays, followed a strike without notice still in progress - described as "wild" by the management - at the Technicentre of Châtillon (Hauts-de-Seine), in charge of the maintenance of TGV of the west and south-west axis. This spontaneous mobilization, which escaped the unions, has wreaked havoc on the traffic with 7 TGV out of 10 canceled earlier this week.
The 200 or so strikers reacted hotly to the management's plan to denounce a local agreement guaranteeing twelve days of compensatory rest for these low-wage agents who were subjected to night and weekend rotations, a project that has since been buried.
This strike was born of "a real collective reaction of the base," says Julien Troccaz, federal secretary of Sud-Rail, the company's third union. "The pressure cooker explodes there, but it will explode everywhere," says the unionist.
Thursday, spontaneous walkouts were announced by Sud-Rail in two other maintenance centers in the Paris suburbs, in charge of Eurostar, Thalys, and TGV running on the north and south-east axes.
"If we start playing with the rules of conflictuality, everyone will lose, even the union organizations, which will be outmoded," warns a senior executive.
To seek appeasement
Years of reorganization, further increased with the imminent opening to competition, as well as the prospect of the end of hiring as a railway employee since 2020, have disoriented railway workers. Some remain bitter since the adoption in June 2018 of the railway reform despite the longest strike movement in 30 years at the SNCF.
It is in this "context of social emergency" that Jean-Pierre Farandou, expert connoisseur of the sector, takes the direction of the group, notes Didier Aubert, secretary general of the CFDT-Cheminots (4th union), in an open letter to the new president.
The unionist regrets "a deteriorated relationship between the management and the railway workers, which has caused deep disruptions and great distrust" and calls for an "inventory" on "the effects of incessant reorganizations". "You have the power and the duty to appease the railway workers in this pivotal period that the SNCF knows," he says.
Laurent Brun, General Secretary of the CGT-Cheminots, the first union, urges the new management to respond quickly to various warning signs - on train safety, freight difficulties, dissatisfaction of users in the railways. stations or worries about the small lines. Otherwise "the explosive atmosphere in the company will lead to a new conflict of great magnitude at the end of the year," he told AFP.
For Didier Mathis, General Secretary of the Unsa railway, Mr. Farandou "arrives in a very difficult climate, especially vis-à-vis the pension reform" on which he has no decision.
The CGT, Unsa and South have already made an appointment on December 5 against this reform that threatens the special regime of railway workers, a movement that the latter two wish to renewable.
© 2019 AFP