Hands Off Macron! Workers on Strike in France Against Anti-Labour Reforms

French president Emmanuel Macron’s railway reforms and his proposal to reduce 120,000 jobs, by offering voluntary redundancy, by 2022 from the public sector has provoked massive protests in the country yesterday.  According to 2014 official figures, public sector employs a workforce of 5.5 million.

Paris alone had almost 48,000 protesters on streets, 13,000 of whom were from the railways. Clashes between protesters and police erupted in Paris and in Nantes police deployed tear gas and water cannon against the demonstrators.

Reuters reported that the turnout “was much stronger amid railway staff, who halted 60 percent of fast trains and 75 percent of inter-city services, while 30 percent of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled.” These disruptions, however, were only a prelude to what is to come.

In response to Macron government’s proposed reforms to Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNFC), the national state-owned railways of France, four of its representative unions, meeting on the 15th of this month, have decided to hold a series of strikes between April 3 and June 28. Two consecutive days of strikes will be held in once every 5 days in this period.

Valerie Pecresse, president of the region Ile-de-France, has warned SNFC that “the minimum service must be respected”, i.e at least “one out three trains must be running” during the period of strike, “including in the rush hours”, adding, “It is the law and if it is not respected, the SNCF will have to refund all the travelers."    

Laurent Brun, a leader of the largest trade union, CGT, said, “the trade union organizations find that, in the face of an authoritarian government, it will be necessary to be able to hold an intensive conflict over a very long period of time.”

Why are the railway workers protesting?

After pushing for labour reforms that has made hiring and firing easier for employers in the private sectors, following which many large corporations have laid off thousands of workers this year. Macron has proposed to cut 120,000 jobs in the public sectors by 2022.

While this has enraged workers in multiple sectors, particularly irked are the railway workers, after the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe formally proposed a legislation on March 14, which will abolish the special status of railway workers.

Currently, 90% of the SNFC staff, around 140,000 workers, are employed through “statut de cheminot” contracts which grants the employees the status of “civil servants”, which accords to them a high degree of job security. Under “Statut de cheminot” contract, “resignation, retirement, or being written off for health reasons or equivalent issues” are the only grounds on which a worker’s employment can be terminated. Profitability of the employer is not an acceptable grounds for laying off a worker, which effectively guarantees an employee’s job security until he/she is 50-55 years of age.

While currently existing contracts under this Statute will not be terminated, the new employees from now on will be recruited under “Code du Travail”, which does not offer any of these hard-won securities to the workers.

The other concern of the workers in French railways is the government’s attempt to change its legal status from public company to a “publicly financed” corporation. While the president has assured that the railways will not be privatized, the protesters are not convinced by his assurance. France Télécom was also moved this legal status of “publicly financed” corporation, before it was fully privatized, Jacobin noted.

Pointing out that SNCF has made €1.3 billion last year, Bruno Poncet, federal secretary for SUD-Rail, questioned in an interview the rationale of pushing for such reforms, arguing that pursuing these policies will not address the debt problem of SNFC as is claimed by the government. “This new law is going to allow the private sector to enter the system, companies looking to turn a profit. In order to turn a profit, a lot of things will be abandoned. Working conditions will become worse.”      

The French national railway is widely regarded as the best in Europe - one that is fast, affordable and well-connected. The proposed reforms, in line with the neoliberal agenda pursued by Macron since his election last year, is widely being seen as an attempt to allow private capital to capture a well-functioning and essential service in the country.