Rail strikes in France to hit holiday weekend

Rail strikes are set to hit the first weekend of the summer holidays as the CGT union has said it will target the weekend of the first grand départ on Friday July 6 and Saturday July 7.

With support for strike action falling to below 10% on June 22 and 23, the union gave official notice of more strike action.

The other leading union, Sud-Rail, has not so far revealed its plans, apart from saying that it wants to “redynamise” its members. It has long demanded an all-out strike. The largest union, CFDT said it would not strike during the summer.

Experts said it was impossible to say if the holiday weekend would be significantly disturbed but union members may be more inclined to walk out after a court ruled that SNCF must pay them for scheduled days off after strike days.

Although 43.8% of drivers joined the last strike day, SNCF was still able to insure that nine out of 10 scheduled TGV trains took to the rails.