After negotiations with SNCF on Friday 10 December failed, French union SUD-Rail is maintaining their plan to strike from 15 December to 19 December. The French national rail company offered 60 extra euros a month starting in June 2023, while SUD-Rail was asking for 400.

The strike is scheduled to start on Thursday 15 December at 8 pm and end on Monday 19 December at 8 am. SUD-Rail, which counts over 8,000 members, is the only French union that has called for a strike so far. However, other, bigger unions, such as CGT, have lamented that the SNCF’s proposal is insufficient.

SUD-Rail’s position

“SUD-Rail demands a new negotiations from Monday”, the union claimed. According to the union, offering a 400 euros raise to 148,000 railway workers in the country would cost SNCF 7,7 per cent of the total payroll. Other than disagreements concerning wage increases, rail workers unhappy with SNCF’s proposal of a ten-minute “duty handover”.

More specifically, this means that workers would have to arrive earlier and leave later to start or finish their shifts. This measure is deemed necessary by SNCF because the industry works with three daily shifts of eight hours. The earlier arrival and later departures would ensure that no time is being lost when switching teams. SUD-Rail highlighted that these proposal border on contempt.

French rail workers members of SUD-Rail threatened to go on strike already in May, but SNCF intervened with promises. However, “SNCF Réseau had made commitments which ultimately were not respected in their entirety”, SUD-Rail pointed out.

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