Strikes in France have been unusually quiet this year, but that’s all set to change in November and December. Planning to visit or travel within France this November and December? Be warned that this is expected to be the season of the strike, as several of France’s largest unions, including transport workers and farmers, plan to take industrial action. All four of France’s major rail unions have joined together for an initial one-day action on Thursday 21 November.
This collective strike day is expected to cause significant disruption, and it could even extend to the Christmas holidays and beyond. Earlier this week, the unions highlighted that if the French government does not meet their demands, they will go on what’s being called a longer and stronger strike (‘un mouvement de grève plus long et plus fort’) from 11 December. The timing is no coincidence: December is the busiest time for the country’s railways.
Unions are concerned about the increasing privatisation of the French state rail company SNCF, the regional train network ‘Transport Express Régional’ (TER), the commuter rail network Transilien and the non-high-speed services Intercité. In fact, the SNCF has been state-owned since it was founded in the late 1930s, but unions are aggrieved that, since 2019, the French rail network has been open to other potential players so that the national company no longer has a monopoly. For example, rail companies such as the Spanish state-owned Renfe and .
