Interview by Cole Stangler

Last week, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe unveiled sweeping reforms to the publicly owned French National Railway Corporation (SNCF). As with the pro-business labor law reform last fall, Emmanuel Macron and his government aim to approve the changes by executive order, thereby reducing parliamentary debate. Under the orders, rail workers would lose key employment protections and the SNCF would see its legal status shift from a public company to a “publicly financed” corporation.

In the eyes of organized labor, the legislation marks the opening salvo to a full-blown dismantling of the nationalized rail system, which has been in public hands since its creation in 1937. Unions recently announced their mobilization plans, which will consist of rolling strikes from April 3 to June 28, a series of two-day long strikes punctuated by three-day intervals. Railroad workers also joined striking civil servants in protest today, March 22.

Cole Stangler spoke with Bruno Poncet, federal secretary for SUD Rail, an independent left-wing union affiliated with the national labor organization Solidaires, and the most militant of the four major unions at the SNCF. Poncet’s union has called for railroad workers to decide strike actions themselves in general assemblies. They discuss the stakes of railroad reform, the strike plans, and why rail workers are such a potent symbol of resistance in France.