CGT struggles to mobilize but "keeps up the pressure"

The CGT Cheminots, the only one to have launched a national call to strike on Thursday, mobilized little, SNCF having accounted for about 3% of strikers, but the union wants to "maintain the pressure" this summer, badured one of his

"The rate of strikers is 3.17%," told AFP the direction. This strike has hardly affected the traffic, which is "normal", it was added, except for "very slight adaptations in New Aquitaine and Occitania" for TER.

See also: SNCF: CGT call for strike is unlikely to be followed

Thursday's mobilization is ten times lower than that of April 3 (33.9% of strikers), the first day of the strike four unions (CGT, Unsa, SUD and CFDT) conducted until the end of June to protest against the railway reform.

But "the fight continues", launched at the microphone, in front of a hundred protesters, Thierry Nier, Secretary General Deputy CGT Cheminots, who had called for a rally Thursday near the place of a meeting between employers and unions on the national collective agreement of the railway branch, La Defense, near Paris.

"The CGT will invest in the negotiations for a high-level collective agreement, "promised Nier

The union, which "claims the repeal of the law" of railway reform, also wants to "act against the break-up" of SNCF, "for employment, wages and pensions" railwaymen, and calls for the revival of rail freight, he said.

The CGT is "not disappointed" by the level of mobilization Thursday, given the number of railway workers "on vacation" or who "need to blow "after the three-month strike two days out of five," Nier told AFP. It was the first day of a national strike organized by the only CGT against the railway reform. On the 6th and 7th of July, during the first big departures on summer holidays, she went on strike with SUD-Rail

Concerning the new mobilization envisaged on 27th July by the CGT, "the process is in progress" towards the strike notice, Nier added. But "we want to continue the mobilization during the summer to maintain a level of pressure," he added.

The union plans two events on July 27: one in front of "the headquarters of maintenance and works" in Paris to support striker railway workers threatened with disciplinary sanctions, the other in front of the SNCF headquarters in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) where the supervisory board of the public railway group will meet