Europe holiday tourist warning as travel chaos expected over Christmas season

A strike announcement has left millions of travellers worried after unions filed an indefinite strike notice for the Christmas period.

The strike could affect thousands of journeys and is planned for 10 days before Christmas.

The strike is expected to start on December 11. The protest is against the dismantling of the freight section of the company, SNCF.

This would lead to the termination of 500 jobs and the transfer of 5,000 employees to private companies.

Such action would handicap millions of travellers during a very busy and in-demand period, as it coincides with the end-of-year holidays.

The strike will impact journeys in Europe and has been called “useless” by Michel Quidort, vice-president of the National Federation of Transport Users’ Associations who criticised this strike notice.

According to him, it is “useless” to strike because it would be too late to change SNCF’s mind. He said: “It is the Borne government that negotiated with Brussels this restructuring of SNCF to avoid having to pay a fine of more than 5 billion euros because it had received illegal state aid for many years.”

Transport Minister François Durovray stated on France Inter that “no one would accept” that there are no trains for Christmas.

Unions have filed a strike notice, which will allow negotiations with the government, says Thomas Cavel, general secretary of CFDT Cheminots, to Europe 1.

He claimed the potential strike during Christmas was not “chosen” by railway workers’ unions but is a consequence of the government’s schedule.

The executive has set January 1, 2025, as the date for Fret SNCF’s disappearance, which will be split into two distinct companies: Hexafret for freight transport and Technis for locomotive maintenance.

This Sunday on franceinfo, Transport Minister François Durovray called for dialogue between the leaders of SNCF and the company’s unions, he said: “This dialogue must succeed because we cannot imagine that at a time when France needs to move forward, it is blocked, and at a time when the French want to come together, they cannot do so.”

Leader in rail freight transport in France, Fret SNCF will disappear on January 1 to be reborn as two separate companies, with 10% fewer staff.