At the start of the departures for the Christmas holidays, these strike calls were lifted "too late in operational terms to ensure a rise" in the number of TGVs in circulation on Friday, explained the management.

Saturday and Sunday, "TGV Sud-Est" traffic will be almost normal, she added.

The traffic of other TGV, "North, East and Atlantic" will be normal "throughout the weekend", from Friday to Sunday, said the rail group, which predicted Wednesday traffic only "almost normal" Friday on the axis TGV Atlantique.

The unions had called for a strike on the TGV South-East axis to obtain improvements in wages and working conditions.

"We are coming out (of the strike) in common with the CGT", declared Erik Meyer, federal secretary of SUD-Rail, but it is "a suspension for this weekend".

"The CGT-Cheminots lifts its notices," confirmed its spokesperson, Cédric Robert.

On Wednesday evening, the other union which had filed a strike notice on this axis for the first weekend of Christmas vacation departures, the Unsa railway, had already announced its decision to "leave the strike".

The management of SNCF Voyageurs, for its part, "takes note with satisfaction of the announcement by the CGT and SUD-Rail of their decision (...), after the same announcement by Unsa", t -she indicated.

"This lifting comes after the trade unions accepted the last proposal made by the management of the TGV South-East axis on Tuesday evening," according to management.

Since then, "there have continued to be non-stop discussions" between unions and management, but "Tuesday evening's proposal" of bonuses of 600 euros for drivers and 300 euros for controllers was "the ultimate proposal. ", underlined a spokesperson for SNCF Voyageurs.

In a joint press release, the CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail explain having "conducted discussions at the local level which allow the victory over some of the demands and to act the suspension of the strike notice".

The CEO of the SNCF group, Jean-Pierre Farandou, in February 2021 in Saint-Denis, near Paris ERIC PIERMONT AFP / Archives

The two unions "denounce the method deployed by the management, which prefers to negotiate through the media rather than organize a real negotiation with all the players around the table".

© 2021 AFP