The strike

For several weeks a dynamic of unity incorporating almost all trade union federations has led a formidable strike at SNCF [the French National Railway Company]. Only FGAAC [the Independent General Federation of Train Drivers – representing a minority of train drivers] put itself outside the movement from the start: as a reward, management reserved it exclusive mentions in the announcements it prepared to meet the strike threat.

These crumbs from the bosses’ table failed to create any illusions amongst the workforce: on 14 November the strike began very strongly. When CFDT [the French Democratic Labour Confederation – a social liberal trade union close to the ETUC] abandoned the strike after day three it did not have too negative an effect, especially since many of their local branches stayed in solidarity with the strike.

The situation became more difficult from Tuesday 20, when the CGT [the General Confederation of Labour – the largest union at SNCF] began to call for resumption of work at several locations, breaking unity with SUD-Rail [Solidarity, Unity, Democracy – a militant anti-neoliberal trade union, the second largest at SNCF] and FO [Workers’ Strength – a minor union at SNCF, with national negotiating rights] to deal only with UNSA [the National Alliance of Independent Trade Unions – a loose alliance of ‘non-political’ union branches] / CFTC [the French Christian Labour Confederation – a minor union at SNCF linked to Catholic social teaching and social dialogue] /CGC [the General Confederation of Supervisors & Managers – a white collar union]. On Wednesday, even before the start of discussions with the government and the SNCF Board, "signals of a resumption of work" were given, in accordance with ministerial diktats. Then, inexorably the resumption of one location ensured the resumption of others since "the number of strikers is declining”.

For all that many CGT activists and collective bodies opted to continue the battle, coming to the same conclusions as the SUD-Rail and FO federations: we decided jointly to support what we knew would probably be a long movement, because we didn’t want to give way on the issues of increased duration of pension contributions, cuts in benefits, de-linking of pensions from wages and two-tier pension status.

This is what numerous strikers’ General Assemblies confirmed even on Thursday.
Even amongst those who decided to go back to work, there were numerous interventions to say: "we’re not satisfied!"

The union federations have been invited to attend 11 meetings between now and 18 December. SUD-Rail will be present: the strikers’ demands will be defended, railworkers will be informed of the government/management dual proposals.

Gallows humour: End of the conflict - “What’s that?” – “Err, well, it’s for suspending the strike.”

The strikers know how much we could yet achieve were unity maintained:
* for railworkers,
* for all workers with special pension schemes,
* for all workers in this country, now directly under the threat of an increase to 41 years pension contributions in 2008, then 42 and so on.
Without unity, the situation is much more difficult!

SUD-Rail supports all railworkers on strike.