“There will be no strike” during the Olympics, assures the Minister of Transport

Since the controllers' strike which severely disrupted train traffic during the school holiday weekend of February 16 to 18, the question has divided the political class: whether or not it is necessary to regulate the right to strike, in particular when it is, as is the case for SNCF agents, a public service mission? If several right-wing leaders no longer hesitate to question this constitutionally protected right, for Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, there is no question of touching it. “This is my position: no need to reform the right to strike.” “For now,” he was careful to add.

Clément Beaune's successor, who is only in his first months of experience as Minister of Transport, prefers for the moment to “trust” the actors. “I repeat it often, the SNCF is part of the national heritage, it is a jewel. This calls for responsibility, from management and unions. Because we value the ability of the French to move freely, the strike must be the last resort. The strike should not be the start of negotiations and if there is negotiation we do not go on strike,” he claimed. The minister also stressed that regulating the right to strike could quickly become a headache for the legislator. “If there were periods, we would have to choose them, and then what do we prefer: daily life or vacation?”, he asked.

What if a transport strike spoils the party at the next Olympics? “I am absolutely not worried,” assured Patrice Vergriete. “I come from a working-class culture and I do not believe for a single moment that workers, employees, unions, will endanger the image of France, the image of their company, in the eyes of the whole world.” “There will be no strike”, he insisted, “it is not at all in the working culture, we are attached to our company when we are an employee, when we are a trade unionist and I don’t believe for a moment that there will be strikes.”

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST

The fact remains that not all political leaders share Patrice Vergriete's optimism. Author of a bill aimed at prohibiting strike notices around public holidays and school vacations, Senator LR Stéphane Le Rudulier, for his part, fears that the Summer Olympic Games will be the subject of “blackmail unions with the executive”. Friday, the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot effectively encouraged the French to strike before and during the Olympic Games, against a government "which only hears the balance of power"... Will the Minister of Transport be t forced to eat his hat?