PARIS: The four main rail unions have called two days of strikes in every five days for the next three months to protest against a shake-up of the national SNCF rail monopoly before it is opened up to competition as required by EU law.
The last time a French president squared off against rail unions over workers’ benefits it ended badly. The strikes of 1995 paralyzed Paris and forced prime minister Alain Juppe to pull the reforms, a defeat from which he failed to recover.
French unions are, however, weaker than in 1995 and divided in their response to Macron’s social and economic reforms. More than half of French people view the strike plan as unjustified, according to an Ifop poll published on Sunday.
