The RATP unions had promised it: after their February 18 strike, which paralyzed a large part of the Parisian public transport network, there would be a new social meeting as spring approaches. This will be done on Friday March 25, with a new day of mobilization for employees of the Régie des transports, which promises to be less disrupted than the previous one.
RATP management indicated on Wednesday March 23 that traffic would be almost normal on the underground rail network (metro and RER), with “slight disturbances” on five lines (metros 2, 5, 8, 9 and 13). On the other hand, the surface network will be more affected, with one tram in two or three (at peak times) and a third of the bus lines interrupted, 50% of vehicles circulating where the service is maintained.
It is therefore a reverse strike compared to the previous one, where the metro had been paralyzed and where the main engine of anger was the question of wages. There, it is the bus and tram drivers who are mobilizing against the expected effects of competition, which will primarily concern the 16,000 bus machinists and 1,000 tram workers of the Régie (out of 45,000 employees of the public establishment RATP).
“The machinists will lose six days off per year”
The company is in the midst of negotiations with the unions on a new organization of work which will be put in place when the RATP’s historic bus network switches to a competitive system, on 1is January 2025 (2029 for trams, but they are included in the negotiation). On this date, the machinists will have switched either to the competitor (Transdev or Keolis, which have shown their interest in this market), or to RATP Cap Ile-de-France, a new subsidiary of the RATP specially created to respond to calls for offers.
However, everyone will have to comply with a “territorialized social framework” (CST), whose work organization characteristics are better than those of the collective agreement for the sector, but less protective for employees than those in force at the RATP. . The new work organization will come into effect on 1is July
“The whole challenge of the negotiations, which should end in April, is to bring our house rules closer to this CST”, underlines Jean Agulhon, the HRD of the RATP. This explains the strike’s pressure and the attitude of the unions, which immediately rejected the management’s proposals. “The machinists will have to work forty minutes more per day than today and they will lose six days off per year”, details Bertrand Hammache, CGT central delegate. Employees also fear an increase in services with cuts, longer and fragmented. “In the bus division, we reached 70% of strikers, notes Arole Lamasse, UNSA RATP delegate. It is a clear answer to the direction of the group. »
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