In France, workers of the National Railway Society resumed a series of two-day strikes. This led to numerous cancellations of flights, both on domestic and international routes.
Only 20 percent of express trains and about a third of regional trains are on the line. Railway workers oppose the government’s plan to reform this largest French state-owned company. Among other things, it provides for the opening of the railway sector for competition. And this, in the opinion of trade unions, can lead to the closure of a number of routes, layoffs, and a reduction in the incomes of the enterprise and its employees. Also, railway workers demand the preservation of preferential status, introduced in the middle of the last century. According to media reports, the strikes will take place every three days until the end of June. Meanwhile, protests have already caused widespread discontent among passengers.
“The status quo is not viable,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in an interview published in the newspaper Le Parisien on Sunday. “It’s urgent, we need to advance, and everyone should know we are determined to see this through to the end.”
Officials at the Communist-rooted CGT union said on Friday strikes could drag on well beyond June if nothing shifted, adding train workers were ready for a “marathon”.
The SNCF forecast that 43 percent of workers needed to make the train network run smoothly would walk out on Monday as stoppages continue, affecting local trains as well as regional lines and some international journeys. That marked a slight a dip in participation compared with 48 percent in the last 48 hours of walkouts on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
“This endangers me professionally,” said Olivier Coldefy, a court psychologist who works in French Guiana, whose travel plans fell through because of the train chaos. “I have work days that I have committed to that I cannot honor,” Coldefy added on Sunday morning at Montparnasse train station in Paris, where groups of tourists were scrambling to re-book trains after realizing theirs had been canceled.
The SNCF reform has drawn public support so far, and 56 percent of French people thought the train stoppages were unjustified, according to an Ifop poll published on Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche. But discontent is also brewing in other sectors.
Students have disrupted several universities across France in protest of a planned new selection system in higher education. Garbage collectors and other public workers have also held demonstrations.
Macron came to power last May on a promise to shake up Europe’s second-biggest economy, in a bid to modernize some of France’s creaking institutions and spur jobs growth. He has faced down unions to liberalize labor regulations so far.
Farida Karsybekova
