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France faces difficult weekend on roads and rail as strikes continue to bite

France faces a weekend of badly disrupted transport on roads and rail as strikes over the government's pension reforms continue. Here's what you need to know about if you are travelling.

Published: 6 December 2019 17:51 CET
France faces difficult weekend on roads and rail as strikes continue to bite

Unions are taking strike action over the government's plans to reform and simplify the French pension system, which many fear will leave them with a smaller pension pot or having to work beyond the official retirement age of 62.

The government is standing firm and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said he will be presenting detailed proposals on exactly how the reform will work next Wednesday.

READ ALSO 'We don't have a choice' Unions explain why they have brought France to a halt

But in the meantime strikes continue with those on rolling strikes – which includes most public transport employees – being urged to continue and unions calling for another day of mass strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday, December 10th.

In Paris public transport services will be minimal over the weekend.

Employees on the city's transport network RATP had announced on Thursday that they would be continuing their strike at least until Monday, December 9th. City transport bosses say the weekend will be a 'sacrifice' so they can concentrate their resources on commuter lines on Monday, which are expected to be very busy.

Nine Metro lines (2,3,5,6, 7bis, 10,11,12,13) will shut down completely.

The services that do run on lines 3,4,7,8 and 9 will be focused between 1pm and 6pm and only Metro lines 1 and 14 – which are automated – will run as normal.

Buses and trams will have a limited service – for full details head to the RATP website.

Fortunately Paris is a very compact city so most places are within walking distance and there are also plenty of alternative transport options.

READ ALSO Six ways to get around Paris without the Metro

If you're in Paris it's worth being aware of the route of a planned 'yellow vest' demonstration, as there are fears of violence from some Black Bloc.

On trains there will again be severe disruption – with just 10-15 percent of services running and the rest cancelled.

Over the weekend around one in six of the usual TGV high speed trains will be running, but they will be concentrated on Saturday morning and Sunday evening.

Thus, there will be two return services between Paris and Marseille on Saturday and Sunday, four services between Paris and Lyon on Saturday and five on Sunday and seven return trips from Paris to Rennes on Saturday and Sunday.

For full details head to the SNCF website.

The disruption also affects Eurostar, which has already announced it will be running a reduced timetable until December 12th, and international train routes that go through France.

It's also shaping up to be a bad weekend on the roads as one hauliers' union has announced it will be staging rolling roadblocks around the country in a separate dispute over fuel tax.

The European Hauliers Organisation says it has a total of 1,000 trucks and will be staging 15 operations in 11 different regions, most of which will take the form of 'operation escargot' or go-slow operations.

And there are blockades continuing at some French oil depots, leading to shortages of petrol and diesel and filling stations around the country. Click here for an interactive map of the stations in your area.

But there is some good news for people flying, unlike on Thursday and Friday the French aviation authority is not asking airlines to reduce their timetables, so most flights should run as normal.

 However there could be some knock-on disruption from cancellations on Thursday and Friday, so anyone with a flight booked for the weekend is still advised to check with their airline.

Barring any surprise blockades at ferry ports, cross Channel ferries are expected to run normally and the Eurotunnel will also be running as normal.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
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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