“Stay on the side of the French”, says the CEO of SNCF to railway workers, four days before a call for a strike

“The strike is avoidable.” This is what the CEO of SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, believes in an interview with La Tribune Sundaywhile the four unions representing railway workers of the public railway company launched a first call for a strike for Thursday, November 21, followed by a notice for an indefinite strike from December 11. The first strike, lasting 24 hours, concerns the salaries of 150,000 railway workers. While the notice for unlimited movement is filed to denounce the opening to competition and the dismantling of Fret SNCF.

“It is normal that the future of Fret SNCF provokes reactions”recognizes, in this interview published Sunday November 17, Jean-Pierre Farandou, who specifies that a meeting with the unions on this subject is planned for November 27, “to discuss the social conditions in which Fret SNCF railway workers will be transferred to the two new subsidiaries”. According to him, “the timetable for discussions is long enough” to take “time to talk” et “to complete the negotiations without going through a strike”.

“The French would not understand a long and hard strike in December for salary issues, they would not understand not being able to join their families to celebrate Christmas”still declared the boss of the SNCF. “The French would not understand not being able to join their families for the holidays,” he added. Before launching an appeal to the strikers: “That’s why I say to the railway workers: stay on the side of the French!”

“The probability that we will be on strike at Christmas is not even 1%”responded, Sunday, on franceinfo, Fabien Villedieu, federal secretary of SUD-Rail. “To be on the side of the French we must fight against the privatization of the SNCF and against the destruction of Fret SNCF”, he says. “We must stop scaring the French. We are told: ‘the railway workers are always on strike’. I looked at how many times the railway workers have been on strike at Christmas since the creation of the SNCF: three times in 86 years”, assures Fabien Villedieu. For this unionist, “we focus on scaring the French by saying ‘be careful, the railway workers are striking at Christmas’ to sidestep the debate on the privatization of the SNCF.”