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French rail strikes: How Thursday’s walkout will affect you

French rail workers are gearing up for another day of strikes on Thursday June 7th. Here's what you need to know about how train services will be affected.

Published: 6 June 2018 17:30 CEST

French rail strikes: How Thursday's walkout will affect you

Photo: AFP

Travellers in France are set to be hit by more travel headaches on Thursday as the rail strikes continue.

Here's what we know about the disruption to services:

Seven TGV trains out of ten running

On the Atlantic line passengers can expect three trains out of four to be in operation while on TGV Est, nine trains out of ten will be in circulation and on TGV Nord four out of five trains will be running.

Internationally, traffic should be almost running as normal for Eurostar and Thalys trains. However no trains will be running on the France-Spain route.

One TER and Intercités out of two

Intercité traffic will also be disrupted this Thursday.

For example, on the Paris-Granville line only two out of five trains will be in circulation. There will be no trains running at night.

Meanwhile, TER passengers are advised to consult their dedicated regional site.

RER

Services are expected to run as normal on RER A while on RER B one train out of every two will be running and passengers will have to change at Gare du Nord.

Rail unions have carried out a series of two-day rolling strikes since the beginning of April to demonstrate their objections to plans to strip new SNCF recruits of jobs-for-life and early retirement, part of Macron's bid to reduce the SNCF's nearly €50 billion of debt.

The strikes have caused major travel headaches for the 4.5 million daily rail users in France although in general they have lost steam over the months of action.

READ ALSO:

French rail and air strikes: Will France be spared a summer of transport misery?

French rail and air strikes: Will France be spared a summer of transport misery? Photos: AFP

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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