For the first time in thirty years, the Pink City metro was at a standstill. Tisséo, the Toulouse public transport network, was strongly affected Tuesday, April 11 in the morning, by a strike on wages. The conflict is linked to the mandatory annual negotiations (NAO) on wages and the integration into these of a safeguard clause to catch up with inflation.
“We recommend that you postpone your trip or refer to alternative mobility solutions,” advises Tisséo on Twitter. “It has never happened that the metro stops (…) for a whole day because of a strike movement”, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Stéphane Chapuis, secretary general of the CGT at Tisséo, reporting a total shutdown of the two automated metro lines, very disrupted tram traffic and 45% bus traffic.
These figures were confirmed by the general manager of Tisséo, Thierry Wischnewski, who also recalled that the metro had never been stopped since the commissioning of the first line in 1993.
“General Fed Up”
“Each year, in the NAO (…) we integrate the safeguard clause, this is what allows us the following year to recover inflation: for example, in 2022, we had a 1% increase [of salaries], inflation was 5.92%, on January 1, 2023, we had 4.92% catch-up,” explained Mr. Chapuis. “And that, this year, they decided they weren’t going to give it to us,” he lamented.
According to Mr. Wischnewski, “In recent years, the company has been able to go up to the level of inflation in its salary increases, except that since 2022 and 2023, in view of the high rate of inflation, it has become more complicated “. “The proposal that was made this year, it is 2.8%, plus 1% if inflation exceeds 5%, and this proposal was rejected. However, I qualify it as completely reasonable, ”the general manager of Tisséo told AFP.
For the CGT and the other members of the intersyndicale (SUD, CFDT, FNCR), it is, on the contrary, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” while “there is a ras-le- general bowl of employees, ”according to Mr. Chapuis.
The strike is expected to last all day on Tuesday. Traffic is expected to return to normal on Wednesday.
