The circulation of RER and suburban trains will be “very seriously disrupted” this Tuesday, May 21, warns the SNCF. Less than three months before the start of the Olympic Games, tension is mounting in the railway company. To put pressure on the company’s management, in the midst of negotiations on Olympic bonuses, the Sud-Rail union announced that it had filed a strike notice in Île-de-France for May 21. This could thus have an impact on RER and Transilien traffic, as well as on Tram 4.
If the traffic situation will only be known precisely 48 hours before the strike, certain lines such as the RER B have already started to alert users of potential disruptions. It should be “very closely followed”, also warns the users association Plus de trains, which indicates in particular that “the RER B and D and the Saint-Lazare lines risk being seriously disrupted” and invites teleworking if possible that day. “At least 90% of the drivers of line R of the Transilien and RER D should be on strike on Tuesday,” says Fabien Villedieu, Sud-Rail federal secretary.
In a leaflet titled “Contempt 2024”, the Sud-Rail coordination of Île-de-France regrets that “the railway workers (are) left behind”, “while the budget for the Olympic Games explodes”. “Management is content to distribute crumbs, ignoring the real needs of its agents,” deplores the union, which emphasizes that railway workers “will be on the front line” during the Games, with “reductions in leave, an increase in “influx of travelers, an increase in the workload on maintenance and infrastructure”.
If the SNCF offers employees mobilized during the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) a bonus of 50 euros gross per day – as well as 200 to 500 euros additional bonus depending on the period when they take their leave -, this is not enough for Sud-Rail. The third SNCF union is demanding in particular a bonus not of 50 euros gross per day, but “100 euros net per day, including rest, during the Olympics and JOP”, as well as “a specific JOP bonus for all SNCF agents » of more than 1000 euros, as at the RATP, as well as “a general increase in salaries of 400 euros per month”.
A round table with the company’s management is already planned for May 22, the day after the strike day. “It is better that we negotiate in May than in July. We have the desire to move forward, but everyone has to get along, and today the railway workers do not see eye to eye in terms of compensation, particularly financial,” explained Fabien Villedieu, secretary. federal Sud-Rail, at the microphone of RMC.
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