French high-speed train services were cut by 40 percent and other inter-city links by up to 70 percent on Thursday, said the state-owned SNCF railway firm, a bastion of the large CGT union.
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Though each group of workers has its own reasons for striking, all are united in their opposition to new labour reforms which the Socialist government says are aimed at which the government says are created to boost the country’s flagging economy and tackle high unemployment by making France more business-friendly.
Jean, a pensioner from the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, said he “wholeheartedly supported” the strikes despite delays to his train journey.
The Socialist government has refused to withdraw the reforms despite fears the standoff could disrupt the Euro 2016 soccer championship that starts on June 10 and an opinion poll on Thursday suggested public sympathy for the strikes was ebbing.
The strike notice warns of a “two to four day walk-out” and is motivated by pay and the pilots defending their jobs as competition increases from other Air France’s budget subsidiaries like Hop! and Transavia.
Workers at the SNCF national rail authority, whose train service will be crucial to football’s Euro 2016 spectators, are o.
An open-ended national stoppage on the railways went through its third day, reducing train services by about half, a week before the June 10 opening of a soccer tournament expected to draw some 2.5 million fans, many from overseas.
France’s SNCF rail company said three out of five of the country’s TGV bullet trains were still operating on Friday amid strikes by the General Confederation of Labour and Rail South unions.
PARIS// Fresh strikes and violent protests hit France Thursday, but there’s no need for football fans to panic.
The strike disruption was compounded by the worst flooding in at least 30 years as the Seine river broke its banks in the centre of Paris, forcing closure of one commuter train line and a halt to barge transport of building materials on top of massive traffic jams on water-logged motorways.
The French government says its new labour law is aimed at reducing stubbornly high unemployment and making the struggling economy more business-friendly.
The announcement came as Prime Minister Manuel Valls was in Athens to offer reassurances that Paris would live up to its commitments to take in 32,000 additional asylum seekers over the next two years.
President Francois Hollande has actually turned down demands that he scrap a bill the CGT says plan to undermine labor protection by providing companies more scope to set in-house offers on pay and terms.
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Workers at the SNCF national rail service have been on strike since Tuesday night, but one union voted Thursday to return to work.
