Travellers face a second day of rail strikes across France as the government counts the cost of protests that have inflicted heavy damage before the Euro 2016 football championship.
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The number two pilots’ union at flag carrier Air France said it would give notice of plans to stage a two-to-four day strike from the end of next week in a separate dispute over measures that will reduce some pilots’ pay.
Despite the disruption caused to their daily lives, 46 percent of French people still support the unions’ calls, a poll in the Journal du Dimanche showed Sunday. Meanwhile, air-traffic controllers agreed a deal with the government thus lifting the threat of flights grounded over the weekend.
The walk-out is part of a series of strikes by militant trade unions who have brought much of the country to a standstill in a mass protest against labour reforms.
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.
This unrest led to street clashes between protesters and police at marches last Thursday. Some unions are threatening to keep up labor action through the start of Europe’s top sporting event next week, the European Championship soccer tournament.
But Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said all unions other than the CGT had called off the air traffic control strike and said the government hoped to avert disruption ahead of Euro 2016.
The government played down the disruption and stuck to its refusal to withdraw its planned labour changes. Union workers will start cutting power at 9:00 p.m. Thursday night, he said.
According to the SNCF national rail authority, about 40% of France’s high-speed trains and more than half of regional trains have been cancelled.
While the Eurostar trains to London are still running without interruption, nearly half of the trains to Italy and Spain have been impacted by the strikes.
Strikes on the national rail service and at most French nuclear plants added to troubles for travelers and residents suffering from floods after days of unusually heavy rains.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said the CGT union, one of the two large unions in France, was waging an increasingly lonely war now that most other unions had dropped grievances.
Workers at an oil terminal in the northern port of Le Havre – which supplies kerosene to Paris’s two main airports – voted to extend their blockade into Wednesday.
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Despite the often violent demonstrations, President Francois Hollande has refused to scrap the legislation and has criticised the unions for tarnishing France’s image.
