A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #340 - SNCF Freight: story of state sabotage (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The launch of an investigation by the European Commission in January 
2023 is precipitating the end of Fret SNCF, the historic operator of 
freight transport by rail in France. Chronicle of state treason. ---- 
"We must save rail freight". This was the so-called noble intention in 
which, at the end of the 1990s, the supporters of opening up the 
railways to competition took the position. Understand: it wasn't them 
who said it, it was the figures: while in 1950, 2/3(1) of goods were 
transported by train, only 18.9% remained in 1990 (2). It was obviously 
the road that benefited from this hemorrhage: with 71%(3) of volumes, 
its hegemony was on the verge of becoming overwhelming. Horror, 
something had to be done.

So, against the backdrop of the European treaty and "socially 
promised-sworn-spitting it won't change anything", they did it. 
Overnight, on 03/31/2006(4), without any preparation or transition, rail 
freight transport was opened to competition and Fret SNCF, a company 
which until then had set volume targets (5), was required to set 
profitability targets. A Copernican revolution for which railway 
workers(6) naturally paid the price: in 2009, Fret SNCF had 15,000. 
Today, there are less than 5,500 (7). The "reorganizations" followed one 
another at a frantic pace, gradually breaking up the work collectives, 
sweeping away the markers of employees so that they cling better to the 
managerial word, swallowing up the free working hours of railway workers 
too attached to their company to resist the temptation to save it.
"In 3 years, we should reach balance." But at Fret SNCF, the sacrosanct 
financial balance is like the horizon: the closer you get to it, the 
farther away it gets. Whose fault is it? On strikes, of course. To the 
economic crisis, of course. In severe weather, of course (storms, 
floods, mudslides, etc.). And most often: a combination of all three. 
Social breakdown, speculation, climate change. It is edifying to note 
that these three jokers, systematically presented as factors external to 
the will of the company's successive management teams, are nevertheless 
all direct consequences of the capitalist world that they serve. Yet 
experienced in the exercise of the tree of causes(8), too few railway 
workers carry out this reflection. Too few also ask what the cost of the 
restructuring imposed forceps was, resulting in loss of skills, 
motivation, burn-out and even, on the ground, deaths at work.
Because in the wonderful world of managers and communicators, these 
restructurings cost nothing. They reported. Reported help. More 
precisely: they are a debt against this aid. Year after year, the French 
State effectively contributed to filling the chronic deficit of Fret 
SNCF - which, once again, could not materially change its economic model 
overnight and which remained essential to the industrial life of the 
country, the road could in no way absorb the volume, even meager, which 
continued to circulate on the rails. What could be more normal, for a 
nationalized company, a public service (as our leaders like to remind us 
as soon as a strike threatens, then forget it as soon as "we must reduce 
state spending")? The fascinating thing about capitalism is that it 
poisons everything it touches. Even the word "help". Because help is 
never free. "In exchange for this aid, the company must make 
productivity efforts." And here we go again with job cuts, mergers, 
splits, new processes, but hang in there, and we'll get there this time, 
if you don't go on strike, you rascals.

2018: the end of the strike
We will not return to the debate (still not resolved) concerning the 
modalities of the closed strike of 2018. Was it a good idea, would it 
have been better to renew it, etc.? Still, it is this reform, led by a 
certain Elisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport after having been 
director of strategy for the SNCF, we seem to be dreaming... It is this 
reform, therefore, called "the fourth package railway", which sealed the 
fate of the SNCF in general and of Fret SNCF in particular. Make no 
mistake: this process of destruction had already been underway for 
years, with methodical and calculated slowness. But with this reform, 
which came into force on January 1, 2020, we have moved up a gear. It is 
the end of hiring in the Cheminot Status, just to put the system in 
deficit and to be able to bury it in a few years. It is the opening to 
competition of passenger transport, because we have seen that for the 
transport of goods, competition had given such good results (between 
2000 and 2018 the modal share of rail freight compared to other types of 
transport transport in France fell from 16% to 8.6%(9), a real success 
for an opening to competition supposed to reverse the trend, right). And 
finally, there is the accentuated fracturing of the SNCF, which goes 
from 3 EPICs(10) to 5 "Companies"(11). Out of habit and convenience, we 
speak of "the five SAs", but only four of them are actually limited 
companies: Réseau, Holding, Voyageur (which contains the Ter like the 
TGV or the Ouigo), and Gare & Connexions. Fret SNCF, the fifth company, 
has not become an SA, but a Simplified Joint Stock Company (SAS) without 
a Board of Directors. The elected representatives of the CSE immediately 
smell the danger. "FRET SNCF will disappear and that's what they 
want.[...]We know what SNCF FRET costs today. Can you imagine what its 
disappearance will cost?», they wrote on June 20, 2019, 6 months before 
the change of legal status which, the Management assures the railway 
workers, will not change anything at all for them, and yes, the State 
will remain the SOLE shareholder, it is PROMISED .

04/19/2018: inter-union demonstration against the reform of the fourth 
railway package
Great expectations
The years 2020 - 2022 were atypical for railway workers, and even more 
so for those in Freight, who suffered the full force of a particularly 
violent reorganization called, supposedly, by the transition to the SAS. 
The renewable strike, as unexpected as it is welcome, against pension 
reform looks like a response to all the stratagems put in place to 
fragment and divide the railway workers. It is also an opportunity for 
them to take back control of a work tool which they are increasingly 
dispossessed of year after year. Then comes the COVID epidemic and our 
policies are touched by grace: rail freight transport would not only 
serve to look pretty, but would occupy an essential function for the 
life of the country. Alongside healthcare workers, supermarket cashiers, 
garbage collectors... railway workers are "on the front line". A 
pandemic and two lockdowns is what it took for a government to finally 
agree to finance a rail freight recovery plan demanded for years by, 
among others, the CGT Cheminots. Fret SNCF, which remains the leading 
rail freight carrier in France although it only transports 50% of 
goods(12), is the main beneficiary, but its competitors are also 
entitled to their share. For railway workers, who are very aware that 
rail, unlike road, their main rival, must bear the entirety of its 
infrastructure costs, this looks like the start of long-awaited 
recognition and paid dearly by employees. . So much effort and so much 
attachment to a company which, in their minds, remains that of a public 
service with a mission of general interest, makes the majority of them 
very receptive to the good news that was not expected. more: in 2021 
then in 2022, "Fret SNCF is in balance". With the help of the sale of 
the subsidiary Ermewa, owner of the wagon fleet? That of Akiem, another 
subsidiary that owns a fleet of locomotives? Or even that of a good part 
of the real estate heritage? Details, all that: the leaders exult, 
praise their successive reorganizations, and of course, "thank the 
railway workers and their managers who do the work every day". (But when 
it comes to salary increases, it's always a matter of forceps, let's 
stay serious.)

So when the news broke on January 18, 2023, it was a massive blow. The 
European Commission is opening an investigation against the French State 
for paying illicit state aid to Fret SNCF between 2009 and 2019, having 
distorted competition in the market. The total of allegedly illicit aid 
amounting to 5.3 billion Euros - irreimbursable if the conclusion of the 
investigation were to require it at the end of the 18 months of 
investigation (which will not expire until June 2024, keep this detail 
in mind). The railway workers don't understand. The origin of this 
investigation are complaints filed in 2016 by three competing railway 
companies (13) whose identity is not revealed, but these complaints were 
withdrawn in 2020. If the said competitors no longer complain, why is 
the European Commission waking up? Why target the first operator of a 
mode of transport of goods whose essential nature has just been 
highlighted by the COVID crisis? Why attack a major low-carbon company 
from a country that the Court of Justice of the European Union had 
condemned in October 2019 for failure to comply with the obligations 
arising from a 2008 European directive on air quality (14)? Finally, for 
those who believed, unfortunately, in the viability of a neoliberal 
model for their railway company, the fact that the investigation was 
triggered when Fret SNCF seemed to have finally managed to comply with 
the imperatives of profitability without dying, looks a lot like 
relentlessness.
If you are still reading this article, congratulations, because it is a 
subject made intentionally complex by the proponents of all-out 
liberalism and their zealous minions. This is why it is difficult, 
despite the seriousness of the situation, to inform the population, when 
only a large-scale collective reaction could have opposed the 
steamroller of liberal Europe. Not simply a reaction from Fret SNCF 
railway workers, whose bitterness does not, unfortunately, turn into 
anger, for fear of failure and stigma. What will happen to Fret SNCF is 
not just a railway problem: it is a societal problem. A society which 
must understand that it can no longer, that it must no longer, rely on 
its representatives and its leaders. "There is no supreme savior." If we 
still needed proof, we can find it at Fret SNCF.
"We will fight to defend the company, we have a meeting with the 
Minister of Transport" blablabla, Fret managers announced to their 
employees. For years, it was up to employees to "give everything" to 
save the company. This time it was the turn of their leaders. Without 
net. With no way to pass it on to the railway workers. We are not 
disappointed.

A guilty abandonment
An investigation by the European Commission lasts 18 months. However, 
the SNCF Freight Management and Clément Beaune, on a brief visit to the 
Ministry of Transport, did not wait more than 3 months before giving up. 
However, there is no shortage of arguments:

Fret SNCF now only transports 50% of the goods that travel by rail in 
France although it started from a monopoly situation 20 years ago, so it 
is good that competing companies have the opportunity to win markets and 
that Fret SNCF, major as it is, is no longer hegemonic.
The State is a shareholder of SNCF, is it not normal for a shareholder 
to bail out his companies?
Without this bailout, Fret SNCF would have disappeared in a few years, 
transferring most of the volume transported to the road, since the 
competitors would not have been sufficiently established, but it is 
precisely to stop the modal shift from rail to road that rail transport 
had been opened to competition. It is particularly tasty to hear 
(according to a person from the legal department of Fret SNCF) that for 
the European Commission, which claims to act in the name of free and 
undistorted competition and attacks Fret for this reason, the road is 
not a competitor of Fret SNCF: the road and rail freight markets are 
separated for it. It will therefore do absolutely nothing regarding the 
obvious imbalance which puts rail at a disadvantage compared to road. 
Heads I win, tails you lose. However, the French state chose to give in 
to this unbearable contradiction.
the aid was granted in return for considerable productivity efforts 
precisely to end up sticking to the railway business model advocated by 
Europe(15)
the endangerment of the leading railway operator is in total 
contradiction with the ecological objectives displayed by this same Europe.
To cite only the most obvious arguments. We have had more difficult 
cases to defend, right? No matter, on May 24, 2023, Clément Beaune 
announced that he had contacted the European Commissioner for 
Competition Margrethe Vestager and reached an agreement with her: if the 
French State applies the "discontinuity plan" that he is proposing, then 
the European Commission (which is just beginning its investigation, 
remember!) will not request reimbursement of the 5 billion which could 
only lead to the liquidation of Fret SNCF. Margrethe Vestager never 
confirmed having made this "deal". The middle managers invited to the 
now regular chats organized by the company's management, and whose 
irritation becomes remarkably uninhibited in the questions and remarks 
posted, ask several times: are we SURE that this plan will be enough to 
convince the European Commission? Isn't it better to fight (legally, 
let's not get carried away: these are executives) rather than giving up 
arms right away? And if in the worst case, the investigation actually 
concluded that there was an obligation to repay the aid and France 
refused to apply this directive: what would happen? It's not like Europe 
has an army to send. Leaders rely on the continuous imprecation: "we 
have the guarantee that it will work". Which at least has the virtue of 
consummating the divorce with a good part of the railway workers who 
still remained lenient with their Managers, and who join the camp of 
those who have long no longer had confidence in the managerial and 
official word. Promises only bind those who believe them.

The discontinuity plan: kill Fret to save Fret
Let us return to this plan of discontinuity, which those who work to put 
it in place colloquially call "disco" (16). What does it consist on? The 
main measures are:

Fret SNCF is separating itself from so-called "dedicated" traffic: this 
involves combined traffic (containers that can also be transported by 
truck) which have such a high frequency (of the order of one train per 
day) that They alone are enough to fill the annual usage time of the 
locomotives and the drivers who operate them on a redundant axis. So 
it's a bit of a railway company within a railway company. This traffic 
has an enormous advantage: they can be loaded on both the outward and 
return journeys, which is not the case, for example, with chemical 
product traffic since you cannot fill a tank with ammonia. coming from 
transporting, for example, chlorine: the majority of rail freight 
traffic must be carried out with an empty return perceived as a 
deadweight loss. Combined traffic is therefore both very profitable, 
very competitive compared to the road (which has no problem carrying 
loads/loads) and very easy to take over for new railway companies. They 
represented 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce, 20% of its turnover and 30% of 
the volumes transported. The Minister of Transport ordered Fret SNCF to 
separate from these flows and to inform its customers that they had to 
find another operator, by June 2024. Gift. Knowing that the companies 
which have filed a complaint against Fret SNCF are necessarily among 
those which "will" have to resume this traffic. But that's not all. If 
the railway companies chosen by customers to replace Fret SNCF did not 
initially have the means to ensure this traffic (not enough drivers or 
locomotives), then Fret SNCF would be obliged to ensure this traffic on 
their behalf as a subcontractor (not free of charge though) for a period 
of up to 3 years(17). Finally, Fret SNCF is completely prohibited from 
responding to calls for tenders for transport on dedicated traffic for a 
period of 10 years; its subsidiaries, for a period of 5 years. Yes: the 
Minister of Transport of the French State took this decision and imposed 
it on the SNCF Freight Managers who are carrying it out with a zeal that 
is matched only by their cowardice. What more does it take to understand 
that we must stop relying on leaders?
But it is not finished. This plan having the objective of avoiding the 
liquidation of Fret SNCF in return for the 5 billion in aid, the 
Minister of Transport has decided to...liquidate Fret SNCF. You read 
correctly. Fret SNCF will no longer exist after 12/31/2024. In its place 
will be created two distinct companies whose name remains to be known, 
but we know one thing: neither will be called Fret SNCF, and, when it 
comes to discontinuity, we are almost sure that even the word SNCF will 
not be called Fret SNCF. 'will not appear in their name. Are you still 
there? Here's a fantastic example of magical thinking: legend has it 
that for there to be discontinuity, the company that emerges must be 
totally different from the one it was before. Scope, organization, 
size...Everything is good to stand out from the company which has the 
misfortune of falling in the sights of the Commission. The name is 
obviously part of these magical criteria. Thus we explain to the railway 
workers that, through this dismaying sleight of hand, since Fret SNCF 
will no longer exist, the French State will no longer have anyone from 
whom to claim the 5 billion if the Commission were to demand it. refund. 
Railway workers will be automatically transferred from Fret SNCF to "New 
EF" and "New M"(18) on 01/01/2025. Those who have railway worker status 
will keep it, but for how long? Knowing that the Status becomes less 
interesting as the number of people who benefit from it decreases... 
Collective agreements (on working time for example) will be maintained 
for a maximum of 15 months. It's short, but long enough to put to sleep 
an already weakened vigilance even among the railway workers. Will they 
be able to mobilize to defend their rights? Finally, the capital of 
these companies will be... open to the private sector. Although the SNCF 
Freight Management - which also ensured to be in permanent contact with 
the European Commission during the change of legal status of Fret SNCF 
to SAS following the adoption of the 4th railway package, knowing that 
an SAS cannot legally survive without being profitable independently! - 
assured the railway workers that yes, Fret SNCF would remain 100% 
public, that "it would change nothing" and that there was no reason to 
strike against this 2018 reform. Once again: the promises are not 
binding than those who believe them. We wonder how Clément Beaune found 
the courage to declare that France would retain "a public operator[of 
rail freight]which will not be privatized (13) before the Senate in May 
2023; no doubt telling himself that he would be far away when the time 
came to demand accountability. Rail, this tool for land use planning and 
opening up, should be entirely public. Is it necessary to specify that 
this saving metamorphosis will leave 10% of Fret SNCF's workforce 
behind,i.e. 500 people who will not be transferred but will have the 
assurance of finding a position "in the SNCF group"? With loss of rights 
in the process, no doubt. As for the potential economic viability of the 
two future companies, it raises many eyebrows.

03/12/2020: symbolic reopening of the Brévenne line, formerly used for 
passenger transport but especially rail freight (quarry and steel products).
These are just the two main measures; others, such as the transfer of 
management of the St Priest logistics hall, which makes it possible to 
make fercam(19) and for which we wonder why, again, "we are selling off 
the family jewels", have not need to be detailed here to understand that 
what is happening at the moment for Fret SNCF is serious. Very serious. 
In fact, what is serious is above all that despite the exposure of the 
absurdity of the dominant economic and political model, despite the 
counter-investigation by another Commission, the Parliamentary 
Commission(20), which notably revealed that the discontinuity projects 
of Fret SNCF, far from having been launched in reaction to the EC 
investigation, had been in boxes stamped "Mc Kinsey" since 2018 
(21)...Despite all this, it was not nothing happens. The groggy Fret 
SNCF railway workers have succumbed to wait-and-see behavior and 
defeatism. Activist structures, unions in the lead - those who continue 
to fight - are struggling to publicize and inform the public on a 
subject as important as it is complex to explain (once again, if you are 
still reading: well done). And what is happening today at Fret will 
tomorrow hit the parts of the SNCF that you know better: those which 
provide passenger transport. Although we must keep the hope of an 
upcoming surge, we can nevertheless prepare ourselves for a long 
crossing of the desert. But anyone who knows a little about the history 
of the railways knows that everything that is happening is a step 
backwards: it all started with small, private, competing companies. It 
is in such an environment, however, that a combative part of the 
workforce emerged, well before the creation of the SNCF, before the 
railway workers were brought together in the same public service. So 
today, if we are to swarm, rather than dislocation, let us perhaps see 
this as a coming contagion. If we have to start from a dying SNCF, let's 
take this culture of struggle with us to re-sow it elsewhere. Because 
she grew up there once.

Louise, Cheminote at Fret SNCF

Notes
1. https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/impo...
2. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
3. In France, rail freight transport has was opened to competition on 
03/07/2003 for international transport and on 03/31/2006 for national 
transport https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/ouvert...;; It is rather 2006 
which is cited because the competition only really started at that time.
4. The goal was to transport as much cargo as possible, not even 
counting the cost. This was far from ideal since many private sector 
companies were profiting by not paying a fair price for transport. A 
misuse of the public service...
5. the term railway worker used in this article designates any SNCF 
employee, whether they are in the Cheminot Status or not
6. https://www.ouest-france.fr/economi... and 
https://www.cheminotscsefret.com/do...
7. the cause tree is a method of analysis used in the event of an 
accident or risk of accident to determine the primary causes and deduce 
the steps to take to avoid them in the future.
8. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistique... Figure 1
9. EPIC: Public Industrial and Commercial Establishment
10. It should be noted that these 5 companies make up "the SNCF" as we 
describe it let's all imagine: the railway network and the stations that 
link it, the transport activities of passengers and goods, the 
maintenance of tracks and locomotives... However, since 01/01/2020, 
there no longer exists a legal entity bringing together these companies 
and them alone. "SNCF" no longer exists. The fourth railway package 
replaced the Public Rail Group (GPF) which disappeared on 12/31/2019, 
with a "Unified Public Group" (GPU), which certainly contains the 5 
companies, but also Keolis and Géodis. "The 5 Societies" is only a 
rhetorical formula without legal unity. One of the many and formidable 
tricks of illusion by which this public service has been dismembered 
without the population realizing it.
11. in tonnes.km, source p 14 https://www.autorite-transports.fr/...
12. (A little thought for Guillaume Pépy, President of the SNCF from 
2008 to 2020 and who said "Openness to competition is an opportunity for 
rail and for mobility).
13. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/arti...
14. believe me, it burns my fingers to write this, but the objective of 
this paragraph is to expose, not what I think, but to what extent the 
investigation by the European Commission and the government measures 
make no sense according to the rules set by liberalism itself and 
according to the logic they claim to follow.
15. No it's not a joke
16. this will not be necessary: the flows have all switched to their new 
operator in January 2024, but imagine the state of mind of the railway 
workers when they were told that they should help companies that may 
have filed complaints against theirs to carry out the trafficking that 
was taken from them in the name of free and undistorted competition, 
until they no longer need them.
17. "New EF" and "New M" are the temporary names of the two companies 
which will replace Fret SNCF. EF is the abbreviation of Railway Company, 
and takes over freight transport activities. M is the abbreviation for 
"maintenance" and will take over the eponymous activities of Fret.
18. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualit...
19. fercam: transport carried out partly by rail and partly by truck
20. The hearings of the Parliamentary Commission are freely accessible 
on https://videos. assemblee-nationale.... and its final report here: 
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/... , it concludes nothing less than 
the total illegitimacy of the liquidation of Fret SNCF and the character 
ideological and dogmatic of the European Commission investigation!
21. see the hearing of Sylvie Charles, Former CEO of Fret SNCF (2010 - 
2020) on 09/28/2023

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