The launch of an investigation by the European Commission in January
2023 is precipitating the end of Fret SNCF, the historic operator of
freight transport by rail in France. Chronicle of state treason. ----
"We must save rail freight". This was the so-called noble intention in
which, at the end of the 1990s, the supporters of opening up the
railways to competition took the position. Understand: it wasn't them
who said it, it was the figures: while in 1950, 2/3(1) of goods were
transported by train, only 18.9% remained in 1990 (2). It was obviously
the road that benefited from this hemorrhage: with 71%(3) of volumes,
its hegemony was on the verge of becoming overwhelming. Horror,
something had to be done.
So, against the backdrop of the European treaty and "socially
promised-sworn-spitting it won't change anything", they did it.
Overnight, on 03/31/2006(4), without any preparation or transition, rail
freight transport was opened to competition and Fret SNCF, a company
which until then had set volume targets (5), was required to set
profitability targets. A Copernican revolution for which railway
workers(6) naturally paid the price: in 2009, Fret SNCF had 15,000.
Today, there are less than 5,500 (7). The "reorganizations" followed one
another at a frantic pace, gradually breaking up the work collectives,
sweeping away the markers of employees so that they cling better to the
managerial word, swallowing up the free working hours of railway workers
too attached to their company to resist the temptation to save it.
"In 3 years, we should reach balance." But at Fret SNCF, the sacrosanct
financial balance is like the horizon: the closer you get to it, the
farther away it gets. Whose fault is it? On strikes, of course. To the
economic crisis, of course. In severe weather, of course (storms,
floods, mudslides, etc.). And most often: a combination of all three.
Social breakdown, speculation, climate change. It is edifying to note
that these three jokers, systematically presented as factors external to
the will of the company's successive management teams, are nevertheless
all direct consequences of the capitalist world that they serve. Yet
experienced in the exercise of the tree of causes(8), too few railway
workers carry out this reflection. Too few also ask what the cost of the
restructuring imposed forceps was, resulting in loss of skills,
motivation, burn-out and even, on the ground, deaths at work.
Because in the wonderful world of managers and communicators, these
restructurings cost nothing. They reported. Reported help. More
precisely: they are a debt against this aid. Year after year, the French
State effectively contributed to filling the chronic deficit of Fret
SNCF - which, once again, could not materially change its economic model
overnight and which remained essential to the industrial life of the
country, the road could in no way absorb the volume, even meager, which
continued to circulate on the rails. What could be more normal, for a
nationalized company, a public service (as our leaders like to remind us
as soon as a strike threatens, then forget it as soon as "we must reduce
state spending")? The fascinating thing about capitalism is that it
poisons everything it touches. Even the word "help". Because help is
never free. "In exchange for this aid, the company must make
productivity efforts." And here we go again with job cuts, mergers,
splits, new processes, but hang in there, and we'll get there this time,
if you don't go on strike, you rascals.
2018: the end of the strike
We will not return to the debate (still not resolved) concerning the
modalities of the closed strike of 2018. Was it a good idea, would it
have been better to renew it, etc.? Still, it is this reform, led by a
certain Elisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport after having been
director of strategy for the SNCF, we seem to be dreaming... It is this
reform, therefore, called "the fourth package railway", which sealed the
fate of the SNCF in general and of Fret SNCF in particular. Make no
mistake: this process of destruction had already been underway for
years, with methodical and calculated slowness. But with this reform,
which came into force on January 1, 2020, we have moved up a gear. It is
the end of hiring in the Cheminot Status, just to put the system in
deficit and to be able to bury it in a few years. It is the opening to
competition of passenger transport, because we have seen that for the
transport of goods, competition had given such good results (between
2000 and 2018 the modal share of rail freight compared to other types of
transport transport in France fell from 16% to 8.6%(9), a real success
for an opening to competition supposed to reverse the trend, right). And
finally, there is the accentuated fracturing of the SNCF, which goes
from 3 EPICs(10) to 5 "Companies"(11). Out of habit and convenience, we
speak of "the five SAs", but only four of them are actually limited
companies: Réseau, Holding, Voyageur (which contains the Ter like the
TGV or the Ouigo), and Gare & Connexions. Fret SNCF, the fifth company,
has not become an SA, but a Simplified Joint Stock Company (SAS) without
a Board of Directors. The elected representatives of the CSE immediately
smell the danger. "FRET SNCF will disappear and that's what they
want.[...]We know what SNCF FRET costs today. Can you imagine what its
disappearance will cost?», they wrote on June 20, 2019, 6 months before
the change of legal status which, the Management assures the railway
workers, will not change anything at all for them, and yes, the State
will remain the SOLE shareholder, it is PROMISED .
04/19/2018: inter-union demonstration against the reform of the fourth
railway package
Great expectations
The years 2020 - 2022 were atypical for railway workers, and even more
so for those in Freight, who suffered the full force of a particularly
violent reorganization called, supposedly, by the transition to the SAS.
The renewable strike, as unexpected as it is welcome, against pension
reform looks like a response to all the stratagems put in place to
fragment and divide the railway workers. It is also an opportunity for
them to take back control of a work tool which they are increasingly
dispossessed of year after year. Then comes the COVID epidemic and our
policies are touched by grace: rail freight transport would not only
serve to look pretty, but would occupy an essential function for the
life of the country. Alongside healthcare workers, supermarket cashiers,
garbage collectors... railway workers are "on the front line". A
pandemic and two lockdowns is what it took for a government to finally
agree to finance a rail freight recovery plan demanded for years by,
among others, the CGT Cheminots. Fret SNCF, which remains the leading
rail freight carrier in France although it only transports 50% of
goods(12), is the main beneficiary, but its competitors are also
entitled to their share. For railway workers, who are very aware that
rail, unlike road, their main rival, must bear the entirety of its
infrastructure costs, this looks like the start of long-awaited
recognition and paid dearly by employees. . So much effort and so much
attachment to a company which, in their minds, remains that of a public
service with a mission of general interest, makes the majority of them
very receptive to the good news that was not expected. more: in 2021
then in 2022, "Fret SNCF is in balance". With the help of the sale of
the subsidiary Ermewa, owner of the wagon fleet? That of Akiem, another
subsidiary that owns a fleet of locomotives? Or even that of a good part
of the real estate heritage? Details, all that: the leaders exult,
praise their successive reorganizations, and of course, "thank the
railway workers and their managers who do the work every day". (But when
it comes to salary increases, it's always a matter of forceps, let's
stay serious.)
So when the news broke on January 18, 2023, it was a massive blow. The
European Commission is opening an investigation against the French State
for paying illicit state aid to Fret SNCF between 2009 and 2019, having
distorted competition in the market. The total of allegedly illicit aid
amounting to 5.3 billion Euros - irreimbursable if the conclusion of the
investigation were to require it at the end of the 18 months of
investigation (which will not expire until June 2024, keep this detail
in mind). The railway workers don't understand. The origin of this
investigation are complaints filed in 2016 by three competing railway
companies (13) whose identity is not revealed, but these complaints were
withdrawn in 2020. If the said competitors no longer complain, why is
the European Commission waking up? Why target the first operator of a
mode of transport of goods whose essential nature has just been
highlighted by the COVID crisis? Why attack a major low-carbon company
from a country that the Court of Justice of the European Union had
condemned in October 2019 for failure to comply with the obligations
arising from a 2008 European directive on air quality (14)? Finally, for
those who believed, unfortunately, in the viability of a neoliberal
model for their railway company, the fact that the investigation was
triggered when Fret SNCF seemed to have finally managed to comply with
the imperatives of profitability without dying, looks a lot like
relentlessness.
If you are still reading this article, congratulations, because it is a
subject made intentionally complex by the proponents of all-out
liberalism and their zealous minions. This is why it is difficult,
despite the seriousness of the situation, to inform the population, when
only a large-scale collective reaction could have opposed the
steamroller of liberal Europe. Not simply a reaction from Fret SNCF
railway workers, whose bitterness does not, unfortunately, turn into
anger, for fear of failure and stigma. What will happen to Fret SNCF is
not just a railway problem: it is a societal problem. A society which
must understand that it can no longer, that it must no longer, rely on
its representatives and its leaders. "There is no supreme savior." If we
still needed proof, we can find it at Fret SNCF.
"We will fight to defend the company, we have a meeting with the
Minister of Transport" blablabla, Fret managers announced to their
employees. For years, it was up to employees to "give everything" to
save the company. This time it was the turn of their leaders. Without
net. With no way to pass it on to the railway workers. We are not
disappointed.
A guilty abandonment
An investigation by the European Commission lasts 18 months. However,
the SNCF Freight Management and Clément Beaune, on a brief visit to the
Ministry of Transport, did not wait more than 3 months before giving up.
However, there is no shortage of arguments:
Fret SNCF now only transports 50% of the goods that travel by rail in
France although it started from a monopoly situation 20 years ago, so it
is good that competing companies have the opportunity to win markets and
that Fret SNCF, major as it is, is no longer hegemonic.
The State is a shareholder of SNCF, is it not normal for a shareholder
to bail out his companies?
Without this bailout, Fret SNCF would have disappeared in a few years,
transferring most of the volume transported to the road, since the
competitors would not have been sufficiently established, but it is
precisely to stop the modal shift from rail to road that rail transport
had been opened to competition. It is particularly tasty to hear
(according to a person from the legal department of Fret SNCF) that for
the European Commission, which claims to act in the name of free and
undistorted competition and attacks Fret for this reason, the road is
not a competitor of Fret SNCF: the road and rail freight markets are
separated for it. It will therefore do absolutely nothing regarding the
obvious imbalance which puts rail at a disadvantage compared to road.
Heads I win, tails you lose. However, the French state chose to give in
to this unbearable contradiction.
the aid was granted in return for considerable productivity efforts
precisely to end up sticking to the railway business model advocated by
Europe(15)
the endangerment of the leading railway operator is in total
contradiction with the ecological objectives displayed by this same Europe.
To cite only the most obvious arguments. We have had more difficult
cases to defend, right? No matter, on May 24, 2023, Clément Beaune
announced that he had contacted the European Commissioner for
Competition Margrethe Vestager and reached an agreement with her: if the
French State applies the "discontinuity plan" that he is proposing, then
the European Commission (which is just beginning its investigation,
remember!) will not request reimbursement of the 5 billion which could
only lead to the liquidation of Fret SNCF. Margrethe Vestager never
confirmed having made this "deal". The middle managers invited to the
now regular chats organized by the company's management, and whose
irritation becomes remarkably uninhibited in the questions and remarks
posted, ask several times: are we SURE that this plan will be enough to
convince the European Commission? Isn't it better to fight (legally,
let's not get carried away: these are executives) rather than giving up
arms right away? And if in the worst case, the investigation actually
concluded that there was an obligation to repay the aid and France
refused to apply this directive: what would happen? It's not like Europe
has an army to send. Leaders rely on the continuous imprecation: "we
have the guarantee that it will work". Which at least has the virtue of
consummating the divorce with a good part of the railway workers who
still remained lenient with their Managers, and who join the camp of
those who have long no longer had confidence in the managerial and
official word. Promises only bind those who believe them.
The discontinuity plan: kill Fret to save Fret
Let us return to this plan of discontinuity, which those who work to put
it in place colloquially call "disco" (16). What does it consist on? The
main measures are:
Fret SNCF is separating itself from so-called "dedicated" traffic: this
involves combined traffic (containers that can also be transported by
truck) which have such a high frequency (of the order of one train per
day) that They alone are enough to fill the annual usage time of the
locomotives and the drivers who operate them on a redundant axis. So
it's a bit of a railway company within a railway company. This traffic
has an enormous advantage: they can be loaded on both the outward and
return journeys, which is not the case, for example, with chemical
product traffic since you cannot fill a tank with ammonia. coming from
transporting, for example, chlorine: the majority of rail freight
traffic must be carried out with an empty return perceived as a
deadweight loss. Combined traffic is therefore both very profitable,
very competitive compared to the road (which has no problem carrying
loads/loads) and very easy to take over for new railway companies. They
represented 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce, 20% of its turnover and 30% of
the volumes transported. The Minister of Transport ordered Fret SNCF to
separate from these flows and to inform its customers that they had to
find another operator, by June 2024. Gift. Knowing that the companies
which have filed a complaint against Fret SNCF are necessarily among
those which "will" have to resume this traffic. But that's not all. If
the railway companies chosen by customers to replace Fret SNCF did not
initially have the means to ensure this traffic (not enough drivers or
locomotives), then Fret SNCF would be obliged to ensure this traffic on
their behalf as a subcontractor (not free of charge though) for a period
of up to 3 years(17). Finally, Fret SNCF is completely prohibited from
responding to calls for tenders for transport on dedicated traffic for a
period of 10 years; its subsidiaries, for a period of 5 years. Yes: the
Minister of Transport of the French State took this decision and imposed
it on the SNCF Freight Managers who are carrying it out with a zeal that
is matched only by their cowardice. What more does it take to understand
that we must stop relying on leaders?
But it is not finished. This plan having the objective of avoiding the
liquidation of Fret SNCF in return for the 5 billion in aid, the
Minister of Transport has decided to...liquidate Fret SNCF. You read
correctly. Fret SNCF will no longer exist after 12/31/2024. In its place
will be created two distinct companies whose name remains to be known,
but we know one thing: neither will be called Fret SNCF, and, when it
comes to discontinuity, we are almost sure that even the word SNCF will
not be called Fret SNCF. 'will not appear in their name. Are you still
there? Here's a fantastic example of magical thinking: legend has it
that for there to be discontinuity, the company that emerges must be
totally different from the one it was before. Scope, organization,
size...Everything is good to stand out from the company which has the
misfortune of falling in the sights of the Commission. The name is
obviously part of these magical criteria. Thus we explain to the railway
workers that, through this dismaying sleight of hand, since Fret SNCF
will no longer exist, the French State will no longer have anyone from
whom to claim the 5 billion if the Commission were to demand it. refund.
Railway workers will be automatically transferred from Fret SNCF to "New
EF" and "New M"(18) on 01/01/2025. Those who have railway worker status
will keep it, but for how long? Knowing that the Status becomes less
interesting as the number of people who benefit from it decreases...
Collective agreements (on working time for example) will be maintained
for a maximum of 15 months. It's short, but long enough to put to sleep
an already weakened vigilance even among the railway workers. Will they
be able to mobilize to defend their rights? Finally, the capital of
these companies will be... open to the private sector. Although the SNCF
Freight Management - which also ensured to be in permanent contact with
the European Commission during the change of legal status of Fret SNCF
to SAS following the adoption of the 4th railway package, knowing that
an SAS cannot legally survive without being profitable independently! -
assured the railway workers that yes, Fret SNCF would remain 100%
public, that "it would change nothing" and that there was no reason to
strike against this 2018 reform. Once again: the promises are not
binding than those who believe them. We wonder how Clément Beaune found
the courage to declare that France would retain "a public operator[of
rail freight]which will not be privatized (13) before the Senate in May
2023; no doubt telling himself that he would be far away when the time
came to demand accountability. Rail, this tool for land use planning and
opening up, should be entirely public. Is it necessary to specify that
this saving metamorphosis will leave 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce
behind,i.e. 500 people who will not be transferred but will have the
assurance of finding a position "in the SNCF group"? With loss of rights
in the process, no doubt. As for the potential economic viability of the
two future companies, it raises many eyebrows.
03/12/2020: symbolic reopening of the Brévenne line, formerly used for
passenger transport but especially rail freight (quarry and steel products).
These are just the two main measures; others, such as the transfer of
management of the St Priest logistics hall, which makes it possible to
make fercam(19) and for which we wonder why, again, "we are selling off
the family jewels", have not need to be detailed here to understand that
what is happening at the moment for Fret SNCF is serious. Very serious.
In fact, what is serious is above all that despite the exposure of the
absurdity of the dominant economic and political model, despite the
counter-investigation by another Commission, the Parliamentary
Commission(20), which notably revealed that the discontinuity projects
of Fret SNCF, far from having been launched in reaction to the EC
investigation, had been in boxes stamped "Mc Kinsey" since 2018
(21)...Despite all this, it was not nothing happens. The groggy Fret
SNCF railway workers have succumbed to wait-and-see behavior and
defeatism. Activist structures, unions in the lead - those who continue
to fight - are struggling to publicize and inform the public on a
subject as important as it is complex to explain (once again, if you are
still reading: well done). And what is happening today at Fret will
tomorrow hit the parts of the SNCF that you know better: those which
provide passenger transport. Although we must keep the hope of an
upcoming surge, we can nevertheless prepare ourselves for a long
crossing of the desert. But anyone who knows a little about the history
of the railways knows that everything that is happening is a step
backwards: it all started with small, private, competing companies. It
is in such an environment, however, that a combative part of the
workforce emerged, well before the creation of the SNCF, before the
railway workers were brought together in the same public service. So
today, if we are to swarm, rather than dislocation, let us perhaps see
this as a coming contagion. If we have to start from a dying SNCF, let's
take this culture of struggle with us to re-sow it elsewhere. Because
she grew up there once.
Louise, Cheminote at Fret SNCF
Notes
1. https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/impo...
2. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
3. In France, rail freight transport has was opened to competition on
03/07/2003 for international transport and on 03/31/2006 for national
transport https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/ouvert...;; It is rather 2006
which is cited because the competition only really started at that time.
4. The goal was to transport as much cargo as possible, not even
counting the cost. This was far from ideal since many private sector
companies were profiting by not paying a fair price for transport. A
misuse of the public service...
5. the term railway worker used in this article designates any SNCF
employee, whether they are in the Cheminot Status or not
6. https://www.ouest-france.fr/economi... and
https://www.cheminotscsefret.com/do...
7. the cause tree is a method of analysis used in the event of an
accident or risk of accident to determine the primary causes and deduce
the steps to take to avoid them in the future.
8. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
9. EPIC: Public Industrial and Commercial Establishment
10. It should be noted that these 5 companies make up "the SNCF" as we
describe it let's all imagine: the railway network and the stations that
link it, the transport activities of passengers and goods, the
maintenance of tracks and locomotives... However, since 01/01/2020,
there no longer exists a legal entity bringing together these companies
and them alone. "SNCF" no longer exists. The fourth railway package
replaced the Public Rail Group (GPF) which disappeared on 12/31/2019,
with a "Unified Public Group" (GPU), which certainly contains the 5
companies, but also Keolis and Géodis. "The 5 Societies" is only a
rhetorical formula without legal unity. One of the many and formidable
tricks of illusion by which this public service has been dismembered
without the population realizing it.
11. in tonnes.km, source p 14 https://www.autorite-transports.fr/...
12. (A little thought for Guillaume Pépy, President of the SNCF from
2008 to 2020 and who said "Openness to competition is an opportunity for
rail and for mobility).
13. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/arti...
14. believe me, it burns my fingers to write this, but the objective of
this paragraph is to expose, not what I think, but to what extent the
investigation by the European Commission and the government measures
make no sense according to the rules set by liberalism itself and
according to the logic they claim to follow.
15. No it's not a joke
16. this will not be necessary: the flows have all switched to their new
operator in January 2024, but imagine the state of mind of the railway
workers when they were told that they should help companies that may
have filed complaints against theirs to carry out the trafficking that
was taken from them in the name of free and undistorted competition,
until they no longer need them.
17. "New EF" and "New M" are the temporary names of the two companies
which will replace Fret SNCF. EF is the abbreviation of Railway Company,
and takes over freight transport activities. M is the abbreviation for
"maintenance" and will take over the eponymous activities of Fret.
18. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualit...
19. fercam: transport carried out partly by rail and partly by truck
20. The hearings of the Parliamentary Commission are freely accessible
on https://videos. assemblee-nationale.... and its final report here:
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/... , it concludes nothing less than
the total illegitimacy of the liquidation of Fret SNCF and the character
ideological and dogmatic of the European Commission investigation!
21. see the hearing of Sylvie Charles, Former CEO of Fret SNCF (2010 -
2020) on 09/28/2023
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4168
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
2023 is precipitating the end of Fret SNCF, the historic operator of
freight transport by rail in France. Chronicle of state treason. ----
"We must save rail freight". This was the so-called noble intention in
which, at the end of the 1990s, the supporters of opening up the
railways to competition took the position. Understand: it wasn't them
who said it, it was the figures: while in 1950, 2/3(1) of goods were
transported by train, only 18.9% remained in 1990 (2). It was obviously
the road that benefited from this hemorrhage: with 71%(3) of volumes,
its hegemony was on the verge of becoming overwhelming. Horror,
something had to be done.
So, against the backdrop of the European treaty and "socially
promised-sworn-spitting it won't change anything", they did it.
Overnight, on 03/31/2006(4), without any preparation or transition, rail
freight transport was opened to competition and Fret SNCF, a company
which until then had set volume targets (5), was required to set
profitability targets. A Copernican revolution for which railway
workers(6) naturally paid the price: in 2009, Fret SNCF had 15,000.
Today, there are less than 5,500 (7). The "reorganizations" followed one
another at a frantic pace, gradually breaking up the work collectives,
sweeping away the markers of employees so that they cling better to the
managerial word, swallowing up the free working hours of railway workers
too attached to their company to resist the temptation to save it.
"In 3 years, we should reach balance." But at Fret SNCF, the sacrosanct
financial balance is like the horizon: the closer you get to it, the
farther away it gets. Whose fault is it? On strikes, of course. To the
economic crisis, of course. In severe weather, of course (storms,
floods, mudslides, etc.). And most often: a combination of all three.
Social breakdown, speculation, climate change. It is edifying to note
that these three jokers, systematically presented as factors external to
the will of the company's successive management teams, are nevertheless
all direct consequences of the capitalist world that they serve. Yet
experienced in the exercise of the tree of causes(8), too few railway
workers carry out this reflection. Too few also ask what the cost of the
restructuring imposed forceps was, resulting in loss of skills,
motivation, burn-out and even, on the ground, deaths at work.
Because in the wonderful world of managers and communicators, these
restructurings cost nothing. They reported. Reported help. More
precisely: they are a debt against this aid. Year after year, the French
State effectively contributed to filling the chronic deficit of Fret
SNCF - which, once again, could not materially change its economic model
overnight and which remained essential to the industrial life of the
country, the road could in no way absorb the volume, even meager, which
continued to circulate on the rails. What could be more normal, for a
nationalized company, a public service (as our leaders like to remind us
as soon as a strike threatens, then forget it as soon as "we must reduce
state spending")? The fascinating thing about capitalism is that it
poisons everything it touches. Even the word "help". Because help is
never free. "In exchange for this aid, the company must make
productivity efforts." And here we go again with job cuts, mergers,
splits, new processes, but hang in there, and we'll get there this time,
if you don't go on strike, you rascals.
2018: the end of the strike
We will not return to the debate (still not resolved) concerning the
modalities of the closed strike of 2018. Was it a good idea, would it
have been better to renew it, etc.? Still, it is this reform, led by a
certain Elisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport after having been
director of strategy for the SNCF, we seem to be dreaming... It is this
reform, therefore, called "the fourth package railway", which sealed the
fate of the SNCF in general and of Fret SNCF in particular. Make no
mistake: this process of destruction had already been underway for
years, with methodical and calculated slowness. But with this reform,
which came into force on January 1, 2020, we have moved up a gear. It is
the end of hiring in the Cheminot Status, just to put the system in
deficit and to be able to bury it in a few years. It is the opening to
competition of passenger transport, because we have seen that for the
transport of goods, competition had given such good results (between
2000 and 2018 the modal share of rail freight compared to other types of
transport transport in France fell from 16% to 8.6%(9), a real success
for an opening to competition supposed to reverse the trend, right). And
finally, there is the accentuated fracturing of the SNCF, which goes
from 3 EPICs(10) to 5 "Companies"(11). Out of habit and convenience, we
speak of "the five SAs", but only four of them are actually limited
companies: Réseau, Holding, Voyageur (which contains the Ter like the
TGV or the Ouigo), and Gare & Connexions. Fret SNCF, the fifth company,
has not become an SA, but a Simplified Joint Stock Company (SAS) without
a Board of Directors. The elected representatives of the CSE immediately
smell the danger. "FRET SNCF will disappear and that's what they
want.[...]We know what SNCF FRET costs today. Can you imagine what its
disappearance will cost?», they wrote on June 20, 2019, 6 months before
the change of legal status which, the Management assures the railway
workers, will not change anything at all for them, and yes, the State
will remain the SOLE shareholder, it is PROMISED .
04/19/2018: inter-union demonstration against the reform of the fourth
railway package
Great expectations
The years 2020 - 2022 were atypical for railway workers, and even more
so for those in Freight, who suffered the full force of a particularly
violent reorganization called, supposedly, by the transition to the SAS.
The renewable strike, as unexpected as it is welcome, against pension
reform looks like a response to all the stratagems put in place to
fragment and divide the railway workers. It is also an opportunity for
them to take back control of a work tool which they are increasingly
dispossessed of year after year. Then comes the COVID epidemic and our
policies are touched by grace: rail freight transport would not only
serve to look pretty, but would occupy an essential function for the
life of the country. Alongside healthcare workers, supermarket cashiers,
garbage collectors... railway workers are "on the front line". A
pandemic and two lockdowns is what it took for a government to finally
agree to finance a rail freight recovery plan demanded for years by,
among others, the CGT Cheminots. Fret SNCF, which remains the leading
rail freight carrier in France although it only transports 50% of
goods(12), is the main beneficiary, but its competitors are also
entitled to their share. For railway workers, who are very aware that
rail, unlike road, their main rival, must bear the entirety of its
infrastructure costs, this looks like the start of long-awaited
recognition and paid dearly by employees. . So much effort and so much
attachment to a company which, in their minds, remains that of a public
service with a mission of general interest, makes the majority of them
very receptive to the good news that was not expected. more: in 2021
then in 2022, "Fret SNCF is in balance". With the help of the sale of
the subsidiary Ermewa, owner of the wagon fleet? That of Akiem, another
subsidiary that owns a fleet of locomotives? Or even that of a good part
of the real estate heritage? Details, all that: the leaders exult,
praise their successive reorganizations, and of course, "thank the
railway workers and their managers who do the work every day". (But when
it comes to salary increases, it's always a matter of forceps, let's
stay serious.)
So when the news broke on January 18, 2023, it was a massive blow. The
European Commission is opening an investigation against the French State
for paying illicit state aid to Fret SNCF between 2009 and 2019, having
distorted competition in the market. The total of allegedly illicit aid
amounting to 5.3 billion Euros - irreimbursable if the conclusion of the
investigation were to require it at the end of the 18 months of
investigation (which will not expire until June 2024, keep this detail
in mind). The railway workers don't understand. The origin of this
investigation are complaints filed in 2016 by three competing railway
companies (13) whose identity is not revealed, but these complaints were
withdrawn in 2020. If the said competitors no longer complain, why is
the European Commission waking up? Why target the first operator of a
mode of transport of goods whose essential nature has just been
highlighted by the COVID crisis? Why attack a major low-carbon company
from a country that the Court of Justice of the European Union had
condemned in October 2019 for failure to comply with the obligations
arising from a 2008 European directive on air quality (14)? Finally, for
those who believed, unfortunately, in the viability of a neoliberal
model for their railway company, the fact that the investigation was
triggered when Fret SNCF seemed to have finally managed to comply with
the imperatives of profitability without dying, looks a lot like
relentlessness.
If you are still reading this article, congratulations, because it is a
subject made intentionally complex by the proponents of all-out
liberalism and their zealous minions. This is why it is difficult,
despite the seriousness of the situation, to inform the population, when
only a large-scale collective reaction could have opposed the
steamroller of liberal Europe. Not simply a reaction from Fret SNCF
railway workers, whose bitterness does not, unfortunately, turn into
anger, for fear of failure and stigma. What will happen to Fret SNCF is
not just a railway problem: it is a societal problem. A society which
must understand that it can no longer, that it must no longer, rely on
its representatives and its leaders. "There is no supreme savior." If we
still needed proof, we can find it at Fret SNCF.
"We will fight to defend the company, we have a meeting with the
Minister of Transport" blablabla, Fret managers announced to their
employees. For years, it was up to employees to "give everything" to
save the company. This time it was the turn of their leaders. Without
net. With no way to pass it on to the railway workers. We are not
disappointed.
A guilty abandonment
An investigation by the European Commission lasts 18 months. However,
the SNCF Freight Management and Clément Beaune, on a brief visit to the
Ministry of Transport, did not wait more than 3 months before giving up.
However, there is no shortage of arguments:
Fret SNCF now only transports 50% of the goods that travel by rail in
France although it started from a monopoly situation 20 years ago, so it
is good that competing companies have the opportunity to win markets and
that Fret SNCF, major as it is, is no longer hegemonic.
The State is a shareholder of SNCF, is it not normal for a shareholder
to bail out his companies?
Without this bailout, Fret SNCF would have disappeared in a few years,
transferring most of the volume transported to the road, since the
competitors would not have been sufficiently established, but it is
precisely to stop the modal shift from rail to road that rail transport
had been opened to competition. It is particularly tasty to hear
(according to a person from the legal department of Fret SNCF) that for
the European Commission, which claims to act in the name of free and
undistorted competition and attacks Fret for this reason, the road is
not a competitor of Fret SNCF: the road and rail freight markets are
separated for it. It will therefore do absolutely nothing regarding the
obvious imbalance which puts rail at a disadvantage compared to road.
Heads I win, tails you lose. However, the French state chose to give in
to this unbearable contradiction.
the aid was granted in return for considerable productivity efforts
precisely to end up sticking to the railway business model advocated by
Europe(15)
the endangerment of the leading railway operator is in total
contradiction with the ecological objectives displayed by this same Europe.
To cite only the most obvious arguments. We have had more difficult
cases to defend, right? No matter, on May 24, 2023, Clément Beaune
announced that he had contacted the European Commissioner for
Competition Margrethe Vestager and reached an agreement with her: if the
French State applies the "discontinuity plan" that he is proposing, then
the European Commission (which is just beginning its investigation,
remember!) will not request reimbursement of the 5 billion which could
only lead to the liquidation of Fret SNCF. Margrethe Vestager never
confirmed having made this "deal". The middle managers invited to the
now regular chats organized by the company's management, and whose
irritation becomes remarkably uninhibited in the questions and remarks
posted, ask several times: are we SURE that this plan will be enough to
convince the European Commission? Isn't it better to fight (legally,
let's not get carried away: these are executives) rather than giving up
arms right away? And if in the worst case, the investigation actually
concluded that there was an obligation to repay the aid and France
refused to apply this directive: what would happen? It's not like Europe
has an army to send. Leaders rely on the continuous imprecation: "we
have the guarantee that it will work". Which at least has the virtue of
consummating the divorce with a good part of the railway workers who
still remained lenient with their Managers, and who join the camp of
those who have long no longer had confidence in the managerial and
official word. Promises only bind those who believe them.
The discontinuity plan: kill Fret to save Fret
Let us return to this plan of discontinuity, which those who work to put
it in place colloquially call "disco" (16). What does it consist on? The
main measures are:
Fret SNCF is separating itself from so-called "dedicated" traffic: this
involves combined traffic (containers that can also be transported by
truck) which have such a high frequency (of the order of one train per
day) that They alone are enough to fill the annual usage time of the
locomotives and the drivers who operate them on a redundant axis. So
it's a bit of a railway company within a railway company. This traffic
has an enormous advantage: they can be loaded on both the outward and
return journeys, which is not the case, for example, with chemical
product traffic since you cannot fill a tank with ammonia. coming from
transporting, for example, chlorine: the majority of rail freight
traffic must be carried out with an empty return perceived as a
deadweight loss. Combined traffic is therefore both very profitable,
very competitive compared to the road (which has no problem carrying
loads/loads) and very easy to take over for new railway companies. They
represented 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce, 20% of its turnover and 30% of
the volumes transported. The Minister of Transport ordered Fret SNCF to
separate from these flows and to inform its customers that they had to
find another operator, by June 2024. Gift. Knowing that the companies
which have filed a complaint against Fret SNCF are necessarily among
those which "will" have to resume this traffic. But that's not all. If
the railway companies chosen by customers to replace Fret SNCF did not
initially have the means to ensure this traffic (not enough drivers or
locomotives), then Fret SNCF would be obliged to ensure this traffic on
their behalf as a subcontractor (not free of charge though) for a period
of up to 3 years(17). Finally, Fret SNCF is completely prohibited from
responding to calls for tenders for transport on dedicated traffic for a
period of 10 years; its subsidiaries, for a period of 5 years. Yes: the
Minister of Transport of the French State took this decision and imposed
it on the SNCF Freight Managers who are carrying it out with a zeal that
is matched only by their cowardice. What more does it take to understand
that we must stop relying on leaders?
But it is not finished. This plan having the objective of avoiding the
liquidation of Fret SNCF in return for the 5 billion in aid, the
Minister of Transport has decided to...liquidate Fret SNCF. You read
correctly. Fret SNCF will no longer exist after 12/31/2024. In its place
will be created two distinct companies whose name remains to be known,
but we know one thing: neither will be called Fret SNCF, and, when it
comes to discontinuity, we are almost sure that even the word SNCF will
not be called Fret SNCF. 'will not appear in their name. Are you still
there? Here's a fantastic example of magical thinking: legend has it
that for there to be discontinuity, the company that emerges must be
totally different from the one it was before. Scope, organization,
size...Everything is good to stand out from the company which has the
misfortune of falling in the sights of the Commission. The name is
obviously part of these magical criteria. Thus we explain to the railway
workers that, through this dismaying sleight of hand, since Fret SNCF
will no longer exist, the French State will no longer have anyone from
whom to claim the 5 billion if the Commission were to demand it. refund.
Railway workers will be automatically transferred from Fret SNCF to "New
EF" and "New M"(18) on 01/01/2025. Those who have railway worker status
will keep it, but for how long? Knowing that the Status becomes less
interesting as the number of people who benefit from it decreases...
Collective agreements (on working time for example) will be maintained
for a maximum of 15 months. It's short, but long enough to put to sleep
an already weakened vigilance even among the railway workers. Will they
be able to mobilize to defend their rights? Finally, the capital of
these companies will be... open to the private sector. Although the SNCF
Freight Management - which also ensured to be in permanent contact with
the European Commission during the change of legal status of Fret SNCF
to SAS following the adoption of the 4th railway package, knowing that
an SAS cannot legally survive without being profitable independently! -
assured the railway workers that yes, Fret SNCF would remain 100%
public, that "it would change nothing" and that there was no reason to
strike against this 2018 reform. Once again: the promises are not
binding than those who believe them. We wonder how Clément Beaune found
the courage to declare that France would retain "a public operator[of
rail freight]which will not be privatized (13) before the Senate in May
2023; no doubt telling himself that he would be far away when the time
came to demand accountability. Rail, this tool for land use planning and
opening up, should be entirely public. Is it necessary to specify that
this saving metamorphosis will leave 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce
behind,i.e. 500 people who will not be transferred but will have the
assurance of finding a position "in the SNCF group"? With loss of rights
in the process, no doubt. As for the potential economic viability of the
two future companies, it raises many eyebrows.
03/12/2020: symbolic reopening of the Brévenne line, formerly used for
passenger transport but especially rail freight (quarry and steel products).
These are just the two main measures; others, such as the transfer of
management of the St Priest logistics hall, which makes it possible to
make fercam(19) and for which we wonder why, again, "we are selling off
the family jewels", have not need to be detailed here to understand that
what is happening at the moment for Fret SNCF is serious. Very serious.
In fact, what is serious is above all that despite the exposure of the
absurdity of the dominant economic and political model, despite the
counter-investigation by another Commission, the Parliamentary
Commission(20), which notably revealed that the discontinuity projects
of Fret SNCF, far from having been launched in reaction to the EC
investigation, had been in boxes stamped "Mc Kinsey" since 2018
(21)...Despite all this, it was not nothing happens. The groggy Fret
SNCF railway workers have succumbed to wait-and-see behavior and
defeatism. Activist structures, unions in the lead - those who continue
to fight - are struggling to publicize and inform the public on a
subject as important as it is complex to explain (once again, if you are
still reading: well done). And what is happening today at Fret will
tomorrow hit the parts of the SNCF that you know better: those which
provide passenger transport. Although we must keep the hope of an
upcoming surge, we can nevertheless prepare ourselves for a long
crossing of the desert. But anyone who knows a little about the history
of the railways knows that everything that is happening is a step
backwards: it all started with small, private, competing companies. It
is in such an environment, however, that a combative part of the
workforce emerged, well before the creation of the SNCF, before the
railway workers were brought together in the same public service. So
today, if we are to swarm, rather than dislocation, let us perhaps see
this as a coming contagion. If we have to start from a dying SNCF, let's
take this culture of struggle with us to re-sow it elsewhere. Because
she grew up there once.
Louise, Cheminote at Fret SNCF
Notes
1. https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/impo...
2. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
3. In France, rail freight transport has was opened to competition on
03/07/2003 for international transport and on 03/31/2006 for national
transport https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/ouvert...;; It is rather 2006
which is cited because the competition only really started at that time.
4. The goal was to transport as much cargo as possible, not even
counting the cost. This was far from ideal since many private sector
companies were profiting by not paying a fair price for transport. A
misuse of the public service...
5. the term railway worker used in this article designates any SNCF
employee, whether they are in the Cheminot Status or not
6. https://www.ouest-france.fr/economi... and
https://www.cheminotscsefret.com/do...
7. the cause tree is a method of analysis used in the event of an
accident or risk of accident to determine the primary causes and deduce
the steps to take to avoid them in the future.
8. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
9. EPIC: Public Industrial and Commercial Establishment
10. It should be noted that these 5 companies make up "the SNCF" as we
describe it let's all imagine: the railway network and the stations that
link it, the transport activities of passengers and goods, the
maintenance of tracks and locomotives... However, since 01/01/2020,
there no longer exists a legal entity bringing together these companies
and them alone. "SNCF" no longer exists. The fourth railway package
replaced the Public Rail Group (GPF) which disappeared on 12/31/2019,
with a "Unified Public Group" (GPU), which certainly contains the 5
companies, but also Keolis and Géodis. "The 5 Societies" is only a
rhetorical formula without legal unity. One of the many and formidable
tricks of illusion by which this public service has been dismembered
without the population realizing it.
11. in tonnes.km, source p 14 https://www.autorite-transports.fr/...
12. (A little thought for Guillaume Pépy, President of the SNCF from
2008 to 2020 and who said "Openness to competition is an opportunity for
rail and for mobility).
13. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/arti...
14. believe me, it burns my fingers to write this, but the objective of
this paragraph is to expose, not what I think, but to what extent the
investigation by the European Commission and the government measures
make no sense according to the rules set by liberalism itself and
according to the logic they claim to follow.
15. No it's not a joke
16. this will not be necessary: the flows have all switched to their new
operator in January 2024, but imagine the state of mind of the railway
workers when they were told that they should help companies that may
have filed complaints against theirs to carry out the trafficking that
was taken from them in the name of free and undistorted competition,
until they no longer need them.
17. "New EF" and "New M" are the temporary names of the two companies
which will replace Fret SNCF. EF is the abbreviation of Railway Company,
and takes over freight transport activities. M is the abbreviation for
"maintenance" and will take over the eponymous activities of Fret.
18. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualit...
19. fercam: transport carried out partly by rail and partly by truck
20. The hearings of the Parliamentary Commission are freely accessible
on https://videos. assemblee-nationale.... and its final report here:
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/... , it concludes nothing less than
the total illegitimacy of the liquidation of Fret SNCF and the character
ideological and dogmatic of the European Commission investigation!
21. see the hearing of Sylvie Charles, Former CEO of Fret SNCF (2010 -
2020) on 09/28/2023
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4168
_________________________________________
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