FRANCE
Striking French rail workers have turned up the pressure on President, Emmanuel Macron with another wave of strikes against plans to reform the state-owned national rail company, SNCF.
The rail unions are organising a series of weekly two-day strikes over a three-month period.
One traveller, Aurélie, said after being told she and her mother would have to find a bus to get home to Strasbourg from Paris, she was not supportive of the strikers.
“The SNCF are known for these strikes; they have the monopoly and they know how to take advantage of it,” Aurélie said.
Mélisande (22) was more sympathetic to the unions and their demands.
“Even if a strike is bothersome for travellers, there’s obviously a reason they’re doing it,” Mélisande said.
“Everyone has the right to job protection, so why shouldn’t they have theirs? I’m on their side, for sure.”
Unions want to stop a reform that would phase out rail workers’ special employment status, which comes with benefits including early retirement, but also obligations of inconvenient working hours and irregular timetables.
A member of the trade union Sud Rail, Emmanuelle Bigot said he wanted to keep the railways in public ownership “and keep the way we are working right now”.
“I think the people will stand with the railways and the rail workers against the Government,” Mr Bigot said
The Government said those employment conditions are part of what makes the company too costly to run.
Junior Minister in President Macron’s Government, Julien Denormandie said he didn’t understand why the workers were striking.
“Some say we want to break up public services and that’s simply wrong,” Mr Denormandie said.
Paris, 5 April 2018
