Strike wave in France: Public officials strike against Macron austerity plans

France must stop at a traffic chaos: A strike wave in the public service begins to be affected mainly by rail and air passengers.

Strike wave in France: Public officials strike against Macron austerity plans

In France, public service is embarking on a wave of strikes against reforms of President Emmanuel Macron: On Thursday, French railways and air traffic are expected to have many failures and delays. The train drivers, air traffic controllers and or public officials want to put down work. On Friday, Air France staff will also strike.

Disturbances can also be expected in international rail traffic: The Thalys company has several connections between Paris and Brussels for Thursday, and Eurostar trains to London are also dropping out. On or hand, Parisian metro, buses and trams are unlikely to be affected. The responsible local transport company RATP expects a "nearly normal" traffic on Thursday.

Many failures in rail and air traffic

On or hand, re will be disturbances in rail transport within France. Only four of ten high-speed trains (TGV) and only one of four intercity trains will be driving, as Bahnchef Guillaume Pepy shared. The French Minister of Transport Élisabeth borne spoke of "massive disturbances". Due to state railway company SNCF, only 30 percent of connections are likely to be guaranteed in metropolitan area of Paris. On average, every second regional train is likely to fail nationwide.

The trade unions have also called for work-downs in public service. The air traffic controllers are also involved in this. The Civil Aviation Authority expects that about 30 per cent of flights to and from Paris airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly as well as of Beauvais north of capital will be cancelled. According to airline, Air France mainly affects short-and medium-haul flights. On Friday pilots and cabin crew at Air France will strike for more money, n y will be expected to have major impairments.

Macron on austerity

Macron's savings plans include abolishing civil servant-like status of railway workers and removing 120,000 posts in public sector. In this way, France should be able to meet EU deficit threshold of three percent for first time in ten years.

Last autumn, hundreds of thousands of frenchwomen and Frenchmen had gone to streets against Macron's labour law reforms, but protests ebbtened. As president passes through his reforms with regulations in Parliament, trade unions and opposition can only achieve little in opinion of many French people.

Neverless, rail trade unions have already announced a continuation of strikes in coming months: between beginning of April and end of June y will call for a strike on "two out of five days". In addition, national trade union rallies are planned. The largest takes place at Bastille Square in Paris, where unions expect 25,000 people.

Date Of Update: 22 March 2018, 12:02
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