“The Olympic truce cannot be decreed, it must be negotiated”: the final meeting of railway workers to increase the amount of “Olympic bonuses”

Last negotiations before Olympian calm? This Wednesday, May 22, a meeting must take place between railway workers and SNCF management. Less than 70 days before the opening ceremony, these discussions must finalize the amounts of the Olympic bonuses for railway agents.

While the SNCF offered 50 euros gross per day to its agents on deck for the Games, the unions are demanding much higher amounts. Sud-rail, at the origin of the strike movement on Tuesday, May 21 on the Ile-de-France network, is demanding “a specific bonus for all agents” without specifying the expected amount. During previous discussions, union officials indicated that a minimum bonus of 1,000 euros would be sufficient to calm the demands of the railway workers.

Furthermore, Sud-rail took advantage of the meeting with management to also demand “an increase in salaries of 400 euros per month”. “The Olympic truce cannot be decreed, it must be negotiated!” insists the union. For its part, the CGT-Cheminot denounces these late negotiations “while companies impacted directly or indirectly by the Olympics have already taken measures, either unilateral or negotiated, for several weeks.” A barely veiled allusion to the successful negotiations of the RATP unions which won bonuses of up to 2,500 euros for their agents mobilized during the Olympics.

At the end of April, Sud-rail had nevertheless lifted its strike notice after signing an agreement on the end of careers welcomed by the main union forces. These measures have clearly not allowed Jean-Pierre Farandou to ensure social peace for this summer.

Asked about the strike of Ile-de-France railway workers during questions to the government, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete denounced this movement two months before the Games. “That there are discussions around this compensation is legitimate, some agents will have to cancel or postpone their leave, others will be mobilized in a very strong and very intensive way,” reacted the minister. But this strike is not acceptable. A negotiation cannot amount to a threat of sabotage of an event of national interest such as the Olympics.

The railway workers are not the only ones playing their trump card. This Tuesday, May 21, employees of Paris Airports also went on strike to also demand bonuses for the Games. Last week, thousands of firefighters demonstrated to demand “treatment similar to that of the police” to whom Gérald Darmanin quickly promised a bonus of 1,900 euros for their mobilization this summer.