After having threatened to strike this Friday, September 15, the SNCTA and UNSA-ICNA unions French air traffic controllers lifted their notice after obtaining an agreement whose details have still not been disclosed.
Even better, French air traffic controllers, although very inclined to strike during the pension reform project, have committed through their majority union SNCTA to a truce of more than a year on the social front, including all period of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games until the end of September 2024.
Xavier Bertrand, the president of Hauts-de-France, today questions the conditions negotiated between the air traffic controllers’ unions and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC). “The notice was lifted because an agreement was reached. I ask Mr Beaune (minister delegate for Transport, editor’s note) to reveal what is in this agreement which, today, is completely secret», denounced Xavier Bertrand, on Cnews, this Thursday. And to hammer out: “What’s in this deal? How much did it cost? Because it’s the taxpayer’s money“. According to the former candidate in the right-wing primary, it is clear that the government has “paid a ransom“.
Beyond the sole case of air traffic controllers, Xavier Bertrand was concerned about the blackmail of certain unions in the transport sector before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.Today there are unions, certain coordinations, which are preparing to, on the eve of the Olympics, demand maximum progress for them“, he warned. In response to union maneuvers, Xavier Bertrand called for going a step further than “minimum service» – which he himself had implemented in 2007 in his previous role as Minister of Labor.
“SIf we want to protect the State, taxpayers’ money, the French who use transport and essential public services, we must now move, as in Italy, towards a law on guaranteed service», pleaded Xavier Bertrand. Italian law prevents certain professions, particularly in transport, from striking on certain dates: from August 10 to 20, from December 23 to January 7, five days before Easter and three days after, and during elections.
