Opening to competition: RATP on strike bus drivers

Monday, May 23, a new social movement of the Machinists of the Régie will disrupt Parisian surface transport for three days.

by (with AFP)

Like the weather, it turns to the storm for users of the bus in Paris and its near suburbs, at the end of May. Monday 23, Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 May, a new strike by RATP machinists is expected to disrupt the traffic of the Parisian transport surface network. According to public control forecasts, the bus offer will reach between 50 % and 75 % of the usual traffic, depending on the lines. A few disturbances can also be expected in the tram. On the other hand, in the metro and the RER, the traffic will be normal.

This is the third social movement at RATP in less than four months, after a big mobilization for wages, February 18 (very followed in the metro and the RER), and the strike day of March 25 , which, conversely, mainly touched the bus lines, since it was linked to the upcoming entry (1 er January 2025) of the RATP surface network in a competitive system .

This new triple strike comes, in a way, to put an end, and symbolically conflictual, to the failure of negotiations which, for more than a year, have been seeking to adapt the working conditions of the 18,000 machinists when opening up to competition. No agreement could be reached with any of the four representative organizations of the company (CGT, FO, UNSA, CFE-CGC) before the closing date of the negotiations fixed by management, namely April 29.

“A scandal”

The RATP, which is for the first time faced with tenders on its historic monopoly (12 lots of bus lines will be put on the market), seeks to bring its house rules closer, advantageous for its employees, minimum social rules which will impose themselves on all operators in Paris and in small crown from 2025. This new work organization, preparatory to competitive big bang, must be set up at the RATP on 1 er July.

“We have proposed to increase the working time of one hundred and twenty hours a year, explains the HRD of the RATP, Jean Agulhon. All, in return for a salary increase of 2,600 euros gross, or l ‘Equivalent of a fourteenth month. The agreement has not been signed, we have triggered our plan B. “And plan B is a unilateral decision of the employer to add twenty hours annual time to Machinists work, against an increase of 460 euros gross per year. “This refusal to sign weakens the employees themselves, underlines Mr. Agulhon. In the competitive framework, they will undergo the increase in working time beyond twenty hours, without the counterpart of a substantial salary increase.”

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/Media reports.