Philippe Martinez, leader of the CGT, announced this Friday morning a national demonstration, with a probable strike for SNCF railway workers on the 22nd March to defend their status.
Philippe Martinez, leader of the CGT, announced Friday a “national demonstration” of railway workers on March 22 , to defend their “status”, questioned by a report sent Thursday to the government .
“The railway workers are doing a national demonstration on March 22nd and, of course, the railway workers will defend the public service, their jobs and their status,” Martinez told France Inter.
Philippe Martinez critique le rapport #Spinetta et sa préconisation de supprimer les petites lignes #SNCF : “Il faut [au contraire] adapter le service public au besoin des populations” #le79Inter @ndemorand pic.twitter.com/M0bX4vHpt0
— France Inter (@franceinter) February 16, 2018
In his report, the former Air France president Jean-Cyril Spinetta advocates deep reforms of the SNCF, in particular a transformation into a public limited company and the end of the status of railway employee.
“When we are attacked, we defend ourselves,” said the general secretary of the CGT, assuring that railway workers “will not let break their work tool”.
A strike planned
He hinted that the demonstration could be accompanied by a strike, warning that “if employees of the SNCF are on strike, there is no train and we can not move.”
This day of mobilization will take place on the same day as the one organized among civil servants against the reform of the civil service.
For Philippe Martinez, “what this report proposes is to accentuate (the) breakage” of the SNCF.
“It will be necessary for me to explain how the status of railwaymen is the cause of the problems and incidents that many travelers today encounter,” he said, calling for “to attack the bottom of problems of SNCF “.
According to him, the consultation on the reform of the rail system announced by the government, in the wake of the Spinetta report, is part of a “framework already well fixed”. “This kind of consultation, as we say a little trivially, is a pipe,” he said.
