France's road freight transport sector is on the warpath. After a long dispute that began at the end of 2021 and led to a national strike last February 10, the French unions signed an agreement with the employers to set a 5% wage increase for professional drivers, with an additional 1% increase starting in May. However, this agreement with the Fédération Nationale des Transports Routiers (FNTR) and OTRE has lost its effectiveness due to the upturn in inflation.
As a result of the war in Ukraine and the current economic situation, the unions have reopened the conflict over wage increases, understanding that the improvement achieved is insufficient due to the current inflation. In fact, the French unions FGTE-CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and Snatt CFE-CGC have signed a joint document promoting a new strike of the transport sector in the country. Professional drivers are calling for a new national mobilization starting on June 27, without specifying how many days this strike may last.
The unions explain that inflation has driven down wages in a large number of sectors, in some cases to values equivalent to the minimum wage of each union. In the case of road freight transport, the minimum hourly wage was raised to 10.49 euros in April 2021, but this figure seems insufficient when the payment to carriers is close to this value and does not take into account the wage increases that have been agreed at a later date.
The unions consider this to be indecent, as well as the treatment of the sector, alleging among other things that the new French Executive has not even created a Ministry of Transport. In any case, the conveners of this strike on June 27 hope that it will not only be limited to the road freight transport and logistics sector, but that professionals from other branches will also join in to blockade large industrial areas and logistics points of interest to the country.
Via Transportation al DIA
