Two unions of the SNCF met with the high commissioner to the pension reform on 31 October. In a social context that is highly flammable.

It is in a social context that is explosive as the high commissioner to the pension reform, Jean-Paul Delevoye, and the secretary of State for transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, received for the first time the unions of the railwaymen this October 31. In the program : the thorny pension reform. A folder is highly flammable because it signals the end of special diets. The timing is not of the happiest. On the eve of the arrival of Jean-Pierre Farandou – which is the successor to Guillaume Pépy the 1st November, several social movements set on fire the railway undertaking in the past few weeks. Last date : the employees of the technicentre du Landy (who manage the oars in the north of France) débraient since this morning (Thursday).

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“The grandfather clause” is on the table

opposition to the pension reform as a whole, the CGT has declined the invitation, as the South Rail. Only, the Unsa rail and CFDT Railwaymen have made the trip and “paid claims”.

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At the heart of exchanges which lasted two hours : transitions towards the future plan points. The report of the high commissioner to the pension reform is clear : the age of 62 years will apply to all and the departures will be gradually removed. In return, these employees will benefit from the taking into account of the arduous as those of the private and transition periods will be provided. Remains to know their durations. The unions claim that the reform is applied only to new entrants, based on the “so-called clause of the grandfather”. “From 1 January next year, the recruitment status stops. It is an endangered species, 120 000 individuals, that is a drop of water. We request the continuation of the calculation of the pension on the last six months for the railroaders.”, justifies Didier Mathis, secretary-general of the Unsa railway.

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This call carried in the last few weeks seems to have been heard by Emmanuel Macron. “I can understand someone who is EDF, the RATP or the SNCF, which has 48 or 50 years, and protesting… Without a doubt, it should not all rush to him […] It is necessary to give time for the transition,” said the head of State in an interview granted to RTL Monday. A message echo the words of Édouard Philippe, who had claimed in early September that he was ready to give time for transitions to special diets. “Each plan needs to draw its own path of convergence. As long as this path will not be drawn, the new system will not be applied,” he said.

But as about the age at pivot 64 years of age, the cacophony of government is quickly re-established. Jean-Paul Delevoye has always said the opposite to this solution, and he clearly recalled, admits Didier Mathis. “But the opening is coming from the president and it is he who decides in last resort”, he hoped.

switch Off the wick

For the rest, the discussions have remained “cordial”, but “quite evasive”. “The high commissioner was especially pedagogy in keeping up with the privileging of this or that option”, stresses Didier Aubert de la CFDT-Railroaders.

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a Sign of a desire for appeasement on the part of the government ? The unions have stalled the holding of two bilateral, and the promise of proposals and simulations, allowing employees to compare in the two systems. Calculations strongly expected.

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both of These meetings where each organization could lay his pawns would be followed by a meeting concluding on November 22. This deadline is most important. In step with the agents of the RATP, the trade unions of railway workers announced a possible strike extendable to December 5 if their demands were not heard. “If they wait too much for us to answer, we will no longer be able to extinguish the wick,” says a trade unionist. Reassure without (too much) backward : the path of the government on a special diet to resemble more of a way of crest.