SNCF strike: how an informal group of train controllers gained influence over the course of the protests

Active since 2022, the ASCT National Collective now has between 4,000 and 5,000 members and intends to make the voice of train managers heard within the railway company.

Over the months and mobilizations, it has made its nest in the railway union landscape. By joining the call for a strike in the middle of the May 8 bank holiday, launched a few weeks earlier by SUD-Rail and the CGT-Ferroviaire , an informal group of controllers, the ASCT National Collective, has once again interfered in the standoff between unions and management . It had in fact been at the origin of the last two major social movements at the SNCF in December 2022 and February 2024.

The CGT-Cheminots (French National Workers' Union), the leading union at the SNCF, is calling for an increase in the work bonus and an overhaul of the organization of schedules, which are too often changed at the last minute. It is joined on this point by SUD-Rail, the third-largest union within the group, and the National Collective ASCT, which are calling for better predictability of schedules and a €100 per month increase in the work bonus. This shortcoming has been acknowledged by the CEO of the railway group himself, Jean-Pierre Farandou, who has admitted to scheduling problems.

At the beginning of April, the collective of controllers had announced that it intended to "support the mobilization dates planned by SUD-Rail on May 9, 10 and 11, 2025" , long weekend dates when many users take the train. Not being a union, the informal group is not authorized to conduct social dialogue, unlike SUD-Rail and the CGT-Cheminots, and must therefore add to an existing strike notice to join the mobilization.

This is why the National Collective ASCT, which claims to be "apolitical and non-unionized," gradually moved closer to SUD-Rail. "For institutional reasons, this collective of controllers could not ignore the unions. Conversely, the unions could not ignore the protest brought by the collective," continues Stéphane Sirot, a historian specializing in social movements, interviewed by Marianne in 2024. "We have our own controllers, but our demands are in the same direction ," explains Fabien Villedieu, federal secretary of SUD-Rail, in the same weekly .

It must be said that the collective now carries a lot of weight in the protests and has 4,000 to 5,000 members on its WhatsApp and Telegram channels out of the company's 8,000 controllers, according to Le Monde . "The collective has made it possible to highlight the complexity of our profession and to unite at the national level, because the unions were no longer able to do it," a flight manager explained to France 2 during the 2022 mobilization.

The Christmas and New Year's strike, which stranded some 200,000 passengers , left its mark on SNCF management. The controllers finally won their case , with the creation of a "train manager's department" to be more responsive to the problems of train managers. They then succeeded in increasing their bonus and received a commitment from management to hire more controllers in 2023.

In 2024, as the February holidays approached, SNCF management did everything it could to avoid another transport shutdown . Fearing that the unions would once again be overwhelmed by the collective of controllers, they agreed to grant new bonuses and additional hiring. A year later, the call for a strike finally came from the unions, who were unable to reach a compromise with SNCF management on wages and the demand for better working conditions. This raises the possibility of transport disruptions from Monday, May 5 to Sunday, May 11.