French rail traffic was heavily disrupted on Wednesday as workers at state operator SNCF staged a 24-hour national strike backed by all four of the company's major unions — the first joint action by CGT-Cheminots, SUD-Rail, UNSA-Ferroviaire and CFDT-Cheminots this year. SNCF said roughly two out of three high-speed trains were running on average across its TGV Inoui, Ouigo and Lyria services, with sharper cuts on regional TER lines and Paris-area Transilien and RER routes.
The unions called the walkout after declaring a "state of emergency" on the French rail network, citing a rise in workplace accidents, sick leave and suicides that they attribute to years of rolling restructuring, alongside unresolved pay grievances driven by the cost of living.
At the heart of the dispute is the break-up of the old unified railway into subsidiaries. The unions are demanding that staff transferred into SNCF's newly created passenger and infrastructure entities keep the same employment rights as workers in the public group — a guarantee they say management has refused to give as competition opens French rail to new operators.
International services were caught in the disruption. Eurostar cancelled trains at Paris Gare du Nord across the strike window, part of a wave of schedule changes running from June 8 to 13, and has confirmed further cancellations between June 15 and 18 as industrial action threatens to continue.
Passengers faced the familiar arithmetic of a French rail strike: SNCF advised travellers to check their specific train before setting out, offered fee-free exchanges and refunds on affected services, and warned that Wednesday evening's traffic would remain degraded as crews repositioned for Thursday's return to service.
The strike hands the government an awkward early-summer test. With the G7 summit opening at Evian-les-Bains on Sunday and the tourist season beginning, ministers have urged the unions back to the negotiating table — while the unions, having demonstrated rare four-federation unity, have signalled that Wednesday's action may be a warning shot rather than a finale.