Management and government propaganda will not stop a massive strike mobilisation on October 18. On the ground, in the regions and branches the only thing everyone is speaking about is our pension scheme. Office staff and Traincrew, operational staff, control, supervisors and even senior managers: there will be many of us on strike. All this excitement is already a failure for the leadership and the government who believed that "some informal meetings at the summit" would be enough to get us to swallow the bitter pill. It is imperative that on October 18 there is the highest possible turnout on strike. SUD appeals to those rail workers who may still be hesitant about going on strike on October 18. Government and management are watching carefully the number of strikers and the size of the demonstrations let’s make sure we are up to the challenge!

The railworkers will not be taking action alone!

The calls to action on October 18 are proliferating outside SNCF (French Railways): RATP (Paris Metro and Buses), EDF (French Electricity Company), GDF (French Gas Company), Hospitals, Inland Revenue and Tax Offices, Post Offices, ANPE (Employment Service), National Education, and so on. There are also calls for strike action in some private companies such as in the chemical, metallurgy and transport sectors. In the regions numerous trades union councils are calling mobilisations of public and private sector workers. More and more workers who are covered by the general scheme understand the government wants to launch a smash and grab raid on the special pension schemes and then go for the general pensions scheme. Fillon (French Prime Minister) spoke openly about raising the pension contribution period to 41 and 42 years, MEDEF (the French employers’ association) is even talking about 45 years!

Returning to 37.5 years pension contributions for all is possible!

Everyone understands that these counter-reforms mean working much longer for a smaller pension. Sarkozy (French President) said that returning to 37.5 years is not possible. However, such a measure, according to the NRC (Pensions Guidance Council), would cost 7 to 8 billion euros per year, which is just a half of the tax gift that has just been given to the richest in society! A different kind of wealth distribution will allow a decent retirement for all.

The contents of the counter-reform are well known; it will lead to significant financial losses for all and leaves no room for negotiations of substance ... unless our collective action changes things!

The widely disseminated consultation paper on the reforms is clear: the most important thing is not negotiable! Moving to 40 years pension contributions over 5 years is presented as non-debatable. The discount system in place from 2010 will financially penalise all those who have not contributed at least 40 years to the pension (then 41, etc.). Individuals can work it out for themselves, in the long run the fall in retirement will be the same as with workers in the private sector, in the order of 20-30%, depending on their year of retirement. Even if train drivers keep their current subsidies, they will also suffer reductions and from 2009 the new recruits will have no subsidies. The negotiations that SNCF management proposed to us last Friday made it clear that it was not prepared to negotiate, seek only to propose some minor measures.

For SUD the priority is to mobilise ourselves to force the government to retreat over what is at the heart of the reforms: the increase to 40 years pension contributions.

Striking on October 19 will give us the means to win!

Now, all the railway workers unions agree that October 18th may not be enough to force the government to retreat. It was all-out strikes that helped us to win in 1995; in 2003, the drawn-out series of sporadic strikes didn’t help. For SUD-Rail, FO, FGAAC, CGT local branches, CFDT, CFTC, trade union federations ... we must build on the momentum of 18 October to extend the strikes from the 19, wherever possible. Others feel the need to wait several days before considering filing a new notice of a strike. We believe that it is a mistake not to take advantage of the power relationship that will be created on 18, but for SUD Rail it is for railway workers to decide.

Therefore we are proposing General Assemblies of workers, from the morning of October 18 to 19, to take place everywhere, all points of view can speak, and the railworkers can decide on where the strike movement is going.

All-out on strike and demonstrations from October 18! Railworkers' General Assemblies to decide democratically on the direction of the movement!