SNCF: before Thursday's strike, unions are putting pressure on wages to catch up with inflation

Two days before a general strike on Thursday, railway workers' unions will gather in front of the SNCF headquarters in Saint-Denis this Tuesday, November 3, to support a request to catch up with inflation on 2026 salaries, during a meeting on the subject with management. “We have a meeting at the end of the morning at the SNCF headquarters to ask for inflation to be caught up, which has been largely exceeded compared to what was anticipated at the start of the year,” indicated Fabrice Charrière, general secretary of Unsa Ferroviaire, the second union of the SNCF.

The agreement “provided for a general annual increase of 0.5% in salaries, payable in two installments, on the basis of an inflation of 1.3% estimated at the time of obligatory annual negotiations on salaries (NAO)” recalled Fabrice Charrière. However, inflation was confirmed at +3.4% over the last 12 months in October according to INSEE, and forecast at +2.3% over the year by the Banque de France, notes Unsa in a press release. The union is demanding a general increase of 2.6% with retroactive effect from July 1.

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Review clause

The UNSA railway and the CFDT are the only two unions to have signed the SNCF 2026 NAO agreement. CGT and Sud did not sign it. The agreement could therefore not formally come into force, UNSA and CFDT representing less than 50% of all employees. Management still applied it unilaterally. In particular, it provided for a review clause if inflation deviated significantly from forecasts.

On the management side, we confirm the holding of a meeting on Tuesday, which is a “progress point”, we indicate, emphasizing that the NAO meetings concerning salaries in 2027 “will take place in January”.

The four main unions of the SNCF, CGT, Unsa Ferroviaire, Sud rail and CFDT are also joining the strike slogan launched throughout the country on Thursday by the national confederations for wages and employment. For this day, the four railway unions are demanding “the opening of real salary negotiations” on “living and working conditions”, and on “maintaining the social unity of the group”.