French rail union announces June - September strike action
Rolling strike attempts to catch rail operator off guard with last-minute walkouts
It is the latest in several rounds of strike action from the union
Hadrian/Shutterstock
A major French rail union has filed a strike notice covering much of the summer, inviting workers to engage in last-minute walkouts and cause disruption throughout the busy period.
The SUD-Rail union filed the ‘rolling strike’ motion for the dates covering June 12 - September 1, and will follow a potentially major walkout set for June 11 by ticket inspectors on the French rail network.
The elongated notice does not mean all workers will strike during the entire period, rather that they have the option to announce an intention to strike at any point throughout the time.
The union is calling for a €100 monthly increase in the work bonus employees on the network receive, due to the increased workload and ‘constraints’ of the job.
Currently, no other unions are calling for workers to strike over the period, however fellow major group the CGT has backed the previous calls in May and June and may follow suit.
Surprise strikes to catch SNCF off guard
SUD-Rail is hoping frequent last-minute small scale strike action that is localised will disrupt the network as people look to travel in July and August for their summer holidays.
Previous major strikes in May and earlier in June called by the unions caused minimal disruption, partly as volunteers offered to cover shifts affected by striking workers to ensure timetables were mostly adhered to.
In these cases, state rail operator SNCF had several weeks to organise alternatives to deal with striking workers.
Over the summer, with workers giving short notice, it may be harder for the SNCF to organise replacements, even if the number of people striking per day is significantly lower than a walkout en masse.
Strike action of this nature can impact both high-speed TGV, Intercités, and regional rail (TER) services, although may focus on the former due to the number of passengers travelling for summer holidays.
In all cases, disruption to train schedules will be publicised the evening before (around 17:00) at the latest, detailing changes to the schedule for the following day.
This information can be found through the SNCF Connect website or application or through local/regional versions of the SNCF website.
