France, Alternative Libertaire AL #228 - Discrimination: Ethics knock at the SNCF (fr)

Racist discrimination are legion SNCF. The unions are at the forefront to lead the fight 
for equal rights [ 1 ]. ---- In railway and railway workers, the fight for equal rights, 
supported by a whole section of the movement syndical? SNCF, including the CFDT since the 
1970s by then-South Rail since 1996, has resulted in several movements collective 
(rallies, strikes, petitions ...). It boasts access to the status of railroad 
contract-le-s, the first wave was made up of young Moroccan workers hired in the early 
1970s and who are excluded because of the nationality clause (outside the EU). South Rail 
also claims the removal of the discriminatory clause. ---- During the creation of Sud-Rail 
in 1996, the choice was made to build a trade union of workers of the rail, especially 
including employee es companies outsourcing and subsidiaries.

However, in the areas of cleaning and caretaking, the employee-es are mostly foreign and 
undergo exacerbated operation with logic of domination and racism. In the cleaning 
industry, foreign women are also gender discrimination that results in part-time and 
sometimes charged with sexual harassment.

Organize to resist

This strong idea of ??bringing workers in a single rail union is the ability to fight and 
make all unions, the employers refuse division, isolation and invisible barriers. Thus the 
struggle of undocumented handlers to SNCF in 2009 helped to highlight and denounce 
outsourcing waterfall in the security industry and the exploitation of undocumented 
migrants. Despite the many obstacles, the union action was effective enough (invasion of 
the late Ministry of Immigration and National Identity) to break the deadlock in high 
places and allow the regularization of almost all of the handlers struggling. In the 
process, a union branch was created and is hosted by the comrades regularized.

Against everyday racism

On the subject of racial discrimination at the station, two cases involving the same SNCF 
subsidiary Itiremia erupted recently. Last year, in a precarious contractual Gare de Lyon 
has been witness to racist abuse and was physically assaulted by a supervisor. Despite 
union mobilization, the questioning of the direction SNCF - signed a charter "ethics" -
and the media coverage of this case, the employee was fired and the battle now continues 
in the legal field. On 8 March, on the occasion of the visit of Shimon Peres whose motif " 
a plea for peace between the Jewish and Muslim religions "and his arrival in Gare du 
Nord SNCF ordered three carriers to its subsidiary to deal with the baggage of the Israeli 
delegation. But " the day before, the site manager was engaged in a strange " market 
"among the staff, excluding the" blacks and Arabs "because it had" no Muslim employees to 
accommodate the Israeli head of state "! ". In a statement [ 2 ] Sud-Rail provides 
support for employee-'re experiencing these discriminatory practices and requires that 
SNCF publicly condemns these practices, and it determines its responsibilities in these
vile racist discrimination.

Marcos Vega (Paris AL East)

[ 1 ] This article complements one published last month on the struggle against racist 
discrimination SNCF

[ 2 ] Press South Rail of 13 April 2013.