Bpatista Morin, edited by Yanis Darras
modified to
7:35 a.m., February 28, 2023
The mobilization against the pension reform is not weakening. At the call of the unions, the day of March 7 should be particularly difficult on the rails. A moment dreaded by travelers, but also by management. Because the mobilizations have a significant impact on the finances of the company.
Chaos on the tracks. This is what the SNCF unions are promising, calling for a general strike on Tuesday March 7, as part of their opposition to the government’s pension reform project. A moment dreaded by travelers, but also by management, which is about to see its income melt that day. According to information from Europe 1, a day of strike costs the railway company around 25 million euros.
“A TGV train that disappears”
Because, during a mobilization, the company must reimburse hundreds of tickets, and even pay compensation, as was the case during controllers’ strikes last December. Some well-informed observers even compare the cost of a day’s strike at the SNCF to that of an all-inclusive TGV train, ie a budget of around 30 million euros.
So, in the premises of the company, the expression “a day of strike, it’s a train of TGV which disappears” is taken up by the collaborators. And when the movement drags on, the cost tends to climb exponentially. Take the 17 days of strike at the end of 2019, to oppose already at the time a pension reform, these 17 days had cost a billion euros to the SNCF.