SUD and the CGT are calling on railway workers to strike on the 6th and 7th July, at the start of the school holidays, as the current strike action comes to an end.
The CGT Cheminots and SUD-Rail call the rail workers to strike on the 6th and 7th July, at the beginning of the school holidays, while the CFDT Cheminots will “suspend” its participation in the movement “throughout the summer period”, they have announced Tuesday.
After the last episode of the two-day strike calendar against the rail reform, which ends on Thursday, the next sequence will take place “July 6th and 7th” and “will be announced as and when” strike dates following Tuesday evening to the press Laurent Brun, Secretary General of the CGT Cheminots, first union at the SNCF.
“A muscular comeback in September”
“We are looking at the subsequent dates” that will weigh on the next meetings with the management of the SNCF or the Union of public transport and rail (UTP, employers), he said, at the exit of an inter-union meeting. These appointments “are not yet rigged”, “there will be meetings until the end of July” and “probably very few meetings in August,” he added.
The CGT “will try not to touch the operations carried out for the holidays of the poorest,” he said, promising “a strong comeback in September”.
SUD-Rail, the third union of the railway group, also maintains “the fight for the withdrawal of the railway pact” and calls for the strike “July 6th and 7th,” said AFP Fabien Dumas, federal secretary of SUD-Rail. On those days, railway workers “will debate in general assemblies the follow-up to be given to the movement to win,” he added.
“No preventive strike”
For its part, the CFDT Cheminots decided Tuesday to “suspend” the strike Thursday, end of the initial calendar, and “throughout the summer period.”
“The idea is to be able to keep mobilization resources in the fall” because “the future social negotiations will be long and complex” at the SNCF and in the railway, explained to AFP Sébastien Mariani, deputy secretary general of the CFDT Cheminots, fourth union of the SNCF. This decision was taken “by an overwhelming majority”.
“For us, it’s the most pragmatic and effective solution. We will not do a preventive strike, “said Mariani, pleading for” the right way of action at the right time. ”
End of the bumpy strike
Thursday will end the 18th and last episode of two days out of five strike launched on April 3 by CGT unions, Unsa and CFDT SNCF to protest against the railway reform desired by the government. SUD-Rail had the same day launched an indefinite strike.
Unsa Rail, second union, was last week the first organization to announce its exit from the movement after June 28, while saying “stay combative”. “Our strategy is to influence the negotiations” in the branch and the company, not on “the big departures on vacation,” said its secretary general Roger Dillenseger.
“Pragmatism” versus “postures”
Before the inter-trade union meeting, the CFDT Cheminots wanted in a statement a “union” unity “as wide as possible” in favor of a summer suspension of mobilization. “The pragmatism and the future social deadlines impose on all union organizations to go beyond their traditional postures beyond the coming professional elections (in November, ed), seeking first and foremost the interest of railway workers”, added the union.
He negotiated “until the end of the weekend” with SNCF management on the future corporate social pact and obtained “pre-commitments on a number of topics to be negotiated,” said Mariani . The meeting of mandatory annual negotiations scheduled for Thursday was “postponed to early July,” he added.
