Paris 2024: Xavier Bertrand pleads for a "restricted right to strike" during school holidays and major events
“During school holidays and major national events, the right to strike must be reduced,” pleaded Xavier Bertrand, president of Les Républicains (LR) des Hauts-de-France, on franceinfo, Wednesday May 1, three months before the start of the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11). “At these precise times it must be really restricted”he insisted.
Xavier Bertrand called for an evolution of “minimum service in transport”a law that he himself put in place in 2007 while he was Minister of Labor. “What is normal is to be able to exercise the right to strike which is a constitutional right,” he recalled. “But the Constitution provides for limits, such as the freedom to go to work, freedom of movement, you must find this balance, this balance, today, is no longer respected”recalled the president of the Hauts-de-France region.
According to Xavier Bertrand, the government should have “anticipate” the strike threats weighing on the Olympics. On the RATP side, management is offering 1,600 to 2,500 euros for metro and RER drivers who will work from July 22 to September 8. Negotiations concerning SNCF agents are still ongoing. The railway company offers employees mobilized during the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games a bonus of 50 euros per day and an additional bonus of 200 to 500 euros depending on the period in which they take their leave. For the former minister of Jacques Chirac then of Nicolas Sarkozy, “It’s not the Olympic truce, it’s the Olympic ‘whatever it takes’.”
“The government tells us that there is no more money in the coffers and tells public companies to go ahead!”, he castigated. Returning to the agreement concluded on April 22 between the main unions of the SNCF and the group’s management to arrange the end of the careers of railway workers and controllers, making it possible to limit the impact of the increase in the legal age of departure at retirement, as provided for by the 2023 reform, Xavier Bertrand understands that this is a “government order” Who “doesn’t want strike problems during the Olympics.” “Go ask the cashiers if they have the means to make themselves heard as they should? Certainly not,” he regretted. “If you want to avoid a new divide, it is up to the government to show courage and say that this law on minimum service is now 16 years old and it absolutely must evolve”underlined the LR president of Hauts-de-France.
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