French rail workers have launched three months of rolling train strikes, prompting street demonstrations and transport chaos, in the first major test for Emmanuel Macron’s pro-business resolve to liberalise the economy and loosen labour rules in the state sector.
The first day of the strikes – dubbed “Black Tuesday” – caused large-scale disruption to the country’s 4.5 million rail passengers. Over three-quarters of train drivers and almost half of essential rail staff walked off the job. Only one regional train in five and one high-speed TGV train out of eight was running. Commuter lines into Paris were severely affected and international services were cut, with no trains between France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and three out of four trains running on the Eurostar service connecting to London.
At rush hour, crowds of commuters at the Gare de Lyon tried to shove their way on to packed trains. A 50-year-old school support worker who had woken at 4am said she saw Macron as the “president of the rich”. A 64-year-old administrator said he was “sickened” by the strike, adding: “Reforms have to happen and at last Macron is the first leader to really try to change things.”
The strikes are against Macron’s plan to push through sweeping changes to France’s vast state rail system, including cutting rail workers’ special employment rights and turning the state-run railway, SNCF, into a publicly listed company. The government argues that the SNCF, which is heavily in debt, must be overhauled before passenger services are opened to competition under EU rules. Unions fear this could lead to privatisation, which the government denies.
Polls show over half the French public currently opposes the strikes. Macron’s ability to push through other planned changes, such as pension reform, is at stake. His party spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said: “We need to rid this country of its strike culture.”
