Nice-Premiere offers a free platform for politicians from Nice to discuss the conflict that topped the headlines this week.
Rudy Salles (UDF Deputy)
This affair is the conclusion of a disaster long foretold. A mismanaged affair for a long time, unions that have been upping the ante, a company that has become a financial sinkhole, declining services, and repeated strikes that discourage customers. Simultaneously, a private company is making money and gaining clients. Today, privatization has become unavoidable. The situation of the staff must evidently be at the center of all stakeholders’ concerns in order to minimize layoffs. Nonetheless, it must be acknowledged that the private company is currently maintaining the Corsica-Mainland connection and is preventing the discontinuity of territorial service. It must also be recognized as a distinctly French problem: public management in the competitive sector is far from exemplary. Additionally, the social dialogue between the company and the unions is disastrous. Finally, the social charges on companies make them completely non-competitive: the competing company sails under an Italian flag.
Marc Concas (PS General Councilor)
SNCM is on its way to becoming the symbol of the government’s policy of methodically dismantling public service.
This announced privatization is in line with the government’s choices that devalue public services, privatize highways, and abandon large parts of rural public service. Michel Vauzelle, President of the PACA Region, has reiterated his commitment to the public service of territorial continuity which can only be provided by a national company, departing from Nice, Toulon, and Marseille.
“It is unbearable to see a government that does not keep its word, trampling on the future of a public service and thousands of employees who implement it,” declared the regional president.
Michel Vauzelle demands the holding “of a new round table bringing together port actors, trade unions, and local authorities so that all options can be examined and all information concerning this matter can be conveyed to the stakeholders.”
I fully agree with this analysis because the employees of SNCM cannot accept being lied to and seeing their work tool liquidated in contempt of the commitments made.
We must all express our solidarity towards Corsica, shaken by a major social conflict, which could quickly extend beyond just the SNCM if the government does not urgently take necessary measures.
