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.