French drivers are fuming, oil industry workers are divided, and the government is reaching into its fuel reserves to end gasoline shortages that have heightened the stakes of nationwide protests to defend labor protections.
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Air traffic controllers have also walked out, leading to a number of flights from the United Kingdom being cancelled.
The CGT has called for another day of action on June 14, raising concerns for fans traveling to Euro 2016 matches being held at 10 venues around France.
CGT official Gilles Guyomard said: “We have to hit where it hurts”.
Viviane, a 66-year-old pensioner queuing to fill up her vehicle in Allier, central France, said the situation reminded her of May 1968, when students and workers paralysed the country for two weeks in protest at president Charles de Gaulle’s government.
France mobilised its emergency fuel reserves on Wednesday as protesters continue their nationwide blockade of oil refineries.
The terminals supply PetroIneos Lavera, Total’s La Mede and Exxon’s Fos refineries on the southern coast.
Workers block the access to the nuclear power plant of Nogent-sur-Seine with a barricade of fire.
As the union action ramped up on Thursday morning, Valls indicated “there may still be changes, improvements” made to the labour reform laws.
Valls slapped Sapin down and ruled out revamping the clause, which gives individual companies more of a free hand in setting working conditions.
He has taken a tough stance against the CGT union over its protest, which has shut down refineries and disrupted fuel supplies.
It’s all part of the ongoing dispute between labor groups and the French government over President Francois Hollande’s plan to overhaul the country’s labor policies.
The CGT said that 16 of France’s 19 nuclear stations had now voted to join the strike, raising the prospect of the country being plunged into darkness.
France’s public electricity provider EDF said almost 15% of its national workforce has taken part in the strike.
Unions and much of the public fear the proposed law – which is created to revive France’s stagnant job market – will rob workers of hard-earned rights.
Pierre Jata, a 40-year-old cable TV technician was rushing to fill up at a petrol station on the edge of the capital, minutes before supplies ran out.
It warned the Socialist government that the European football tournament that opens in France on Jun 10 could be disrupted if it refused to back down.
“I’m with the unions”.
“They’re kind of used to this, I have to say”, Eleanor said.
Roadside assistance company Green Flag reported a 14% rise in United Kingdom customers reporting fuel-related breakdowns in France.
The SNCF national rail authority said 25 percent of high-speed TGV trains were canceled, and a similar percentage of regional and commuter trains were affected. Motorways and bridges were blocked and flights were delayed as well.
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The marchers said “there could be no compromise” until the government retracts the new labour law, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler reported from Paris. While the government has watered down its proposals since first floating them in February, unions are calling for them to be scrapped altogether.
