2024-02-17 17:51:03
A strike by SNCF controllers disrupts rail traffic on the weekend of February 17 and 18.
Published on 02/17/2024 6:51 p.m.
Reading time: 1 min Montparnasse station (Paris), February 17, 2024 as the SNCF controllers’ strike began on Friday February 16. (RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS)
Franck Chaumes, general president of the Union of hotel trades and industries (UMIH) of Gironde, denounced “a facial crime” while the SNCF has decided to give priority to TGV links to the Alps in the midst of a controllers’ strike.
“It shocks me deeply because I believe it is a racial crime. (…) Why do we choose the mountains more than the sea or the South-West?”he asked this Saturday on Franceinfo.
In the middle of a crossover weekend, 150,000 SNCF users will not be able to use the train to get to their vacation spot. The controllers’ strike leads to the elimination of one in two TGVs. “We must now take sanctions at government level and impose, as in other European countries, periods where strikes are prohibited”, estimated Franck Chaumes. He calls on the government to “take responsibility. We are not here to be taken hostage. I remind you that tourism is the leading French economy”he clarified.
“It’s becoming unbearable!”
It is difficult for the moment to assess the results of this strike for tourism stakeholders in the southwest: “You have cancellations, but some still try to come on their own”he explains. “Obviously we do not charge people who have booked and who are victims of this transport problem, they will be reimbursed”he emphasizes.
SNCF controllers are requesting the opening of discussions on their end of career and the taking into account of bonuses in the calculation of their retirement. “If there is as much hardship as that at the SNCF, we are missing 200,000 jobs in France in our profession, we invite them to change jobs to come to us and to the construction industry”he quipped.
“It’s becoming unbearable! If there was competition tomorrow, it would surely be different”he concluded.
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