After several threats of a strike for the Christmas holidays, the railway unions ultimately did not carry them out. But without reassuring the Minister of Transport: Philippe Tabarot, appointed last week, maintains that he remains in favor of limiting the right to strike at the SNCF during certain periods, notably the holidays. This right has “made it possible to advance a certain number of things in our country, but a very long time ago”, but according to him, it has been “misguided, diverted in recent years”, he said on Europe 1.
Senator LR had been rapporteur in the spring of a divisive text to limit the right to strike in the railways, carried in particular alongside the current Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, a bill which had triggered the anger of the unions before the Olympic Games. “I am a man of conviction. I am not going, because I am a minister today, to deny what I was able to table as a bill,” he assured this Tuesday.
The minister thus said he was “in favor, at certain periods of the year, of a limitation of the right to strike”, which according to him has now become “a prerequisite and no longer a last resort”. Referring to the “Italian example”, where strikes are prohibited over several specific periods, including those of the end-of-year holidays, he also called for “protecting” several periods of time, “particularly during peak hours”.
“No strike blackmail for important days”
In his bill, Philippe Tabarot suggested blocking this right for “the holiday period, exams, electoral periods, so that there is not this blackmail to strike for such important days in our country », he insisted on Europe 1.
He also raised on the radio the question of “daily strikes, which disrupt the service” according to him: “We can no longer leave notices which lie dormant for years, if we file a notice we trigger it”, he said. – he launched, pointing in particular to “59-minute strikes so as not to be charged financially”, that is to say by not losing salary, or even “slow strikes”. “All this with the idea of being able to provide a minimum quality service to public transport users,” he argued.
A week ago, on the sidelines of the handover ceremony with his predecessor François Durovray, Philippe Tabarot had already told AFP “that there was, in certain periods, in certain years, a right to strike which could have been diverted. “I will be very attached to social dialogue but also to ensuring that users can have a good quality service,” continued the former vice-president of the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (Paca), where he was responsible in particular for transport.
“There are other priorities” than trying to restrict the right to strike, retorted Thomas Cavel, general secretary of the fourth representative union at SNCF, CFDT Cheminots. “Let’s focus on a railway tool serving citizens,” he pleaded instead.
If these Christmas holidays were ultimately not affected by a social movement, despite multiple threats from several unions in the fall, two years ago some 200,000 travelers found themselves without a journey following the cancellation of their train, because of a massive strike by controllers, who demanded increases in their remuneration.