Two French railway unions are a threatening strike duration of April Easter holidays and the long weekends of May, when France has multiple holidays. So what is the risk of trip interruption?
On Friday, April 11, a second threat strike action of the French Railway Union in May, as railway unions, continuous negotiations with management in the Railway operator of France SNCF.
This occurred after a railway union already presented a strike notice to begin industrial action as of April 17.
So what exactly threaten the French rail unions in the coming weeks and what type of interruption for trains services could there be?
Here are the last details.
When could there be attacks?
The essence is that until now two French rail unions, Sud -rail and CBT Chéminots, have a threatened strike action in the coming weeks.
Of April 17 – The original South-Rail Union strike notice (Préavis de Grève) On weekends covered in the period or from April 17 to June 2, according to France Bleu.
The union specialized that they could call strike actions at any time after 7 pm every Thursday at 8 am the next Monday duration of the strike notification period, which means that the earliest hypothetical action could be Weeken.
However, Sud Rail has focused its efforts in the month of May, and has not made any mention (at the time of writing) on the strikes during the Easter holiday weekend. However, it is never possible.
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May 5 – A second French union that represents rail workers, CBT Chéminots, has also asked rail workers, including ticket inspectors and trains drivers, to begin strikes from Monday, May 5.
They do not especially have a final date.
As for South-Rail, the union has presented some additional strike warnings of this period.
The first is from Tuesday, May 6 at 7 pm a Thursday May 8 At 8 am the union is asking for team workers (Les agents du matériel) Participate in a massive ‘black’ attack throughout the country.
For Wednesday May 7A day that is expected to see heavy traffic traffic as people escape for the holiday on Thursday and long weekend, Sud Rail is calling trains drivers (ADC, Duct agents) To leave.
For May 9, 10 and 11Sud Rail is separately asking the ticket inspectors and other railway personnel (Inspectors) Attack.
When are the French holidays?
As well as Easter weekend, when on Monday, April 21, it is a day off in France, there are three holidays of the month of May – Thorsday, May 1 (May May); Thursday, May 8 (VE); Thursday, May 29 (Ascension).
Many people use the thesis as an opportunity to ‘Faire le pont’ And take a long weekend trip that includes Friday, so it is a busy travel period.
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How likely are strikes?
As things are, the French press has reported that unions are still negotiating with the SNCF management, which means that it could reach an agreement and the strikes could be canceled.
The CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, told France Inter last week that “we have made a very concrete progress (…) and I am very sure that social dialogue will allow all French to travel with peace of mind in the coming weeks.”
That said, if an agreement is not reached, the week of the day sees (May 8) could imply a significant interruption of the trip, with both unions that plan the actions strike simultaneously.
How harmful could the strikes be?
As with all French rail attacks, the exact level of interruption is an uncle at this stage. A detailed attack schedule is generally launched 48 hours before each day of strike on the SNCF connect website.
Any interruption would affect French rail services, but not Eurostar routes. Public transport of the city, as things are, would not be affected.
From 2024, according to BFMTV, CBT Chéminots is the largest union that represents trains drivers, followed by UNSA in second place and Sud Rail in third place.
As such, if both unions call workers to leave at the same time, strikes could be quite harmful.
What are the unions?
In general terms, the dispute is linked to salary negotiations, working conditions and unstable schedules.
Sud Rail is asking for an end of the changes in the last minute time, as well as salary and bonus increases.
As for CBT Chéminots, the union is asking for an increase and review of the ‘traction’ bond for train drivers, as well as a job bonus for ticket inspectors. The union has also rejected the new required tools of ticket inspectors.
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