Thousands of French civil servants, train drivers, air traffic controllers, and school and hospital staff have gone on strike on Thursday in a bid to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's reform drive. France's labor unions haven't once managed to force governments to adopt major policy shifts, and this time Macron has pledged to stand firm on his agenda.

About 150 protest marches are set to coincide. The nationwide general strike will hit the country's rail services, as about 60 percent of trains are set to be disrupted, as well as airports, with 30 percent of flights set to be cancelled in Paris. Many daycare centers, schools and hospitals are also likely to be affected since teachers and health workers are joining the protests. </s> Paris — Police scuffled with protesters in Paris and fired teargas and water cannon in the western city of Nantes as strikes broke out across France on Thursday in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms.

Train conductors, teachers and air traffic controllers walked out to join more than 150 mostly peaceful marches in cities and towns — the first time public sector workers have joined rail staff in protests since Macron came to office in May.

"It’s a real mess," said Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the suburbs and had more than an hour’s wait for the next at Paris’ Gare du Nord station.

Up to 60% of fast trains, 75% of inter-city trains and 30% of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled because of the strike.

About 13% of teachers walked off the job, the education ministry said, closing many primary schools.

Electricity generation dropped by more than three gigawatts, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, as those workers joined the strike, stoking government fears that the work stoppages could spread.

Public sector workers are angry with plans to cut the public sector headcount by 120,000 by 2022, including via voluntary redundancies, and about the introduction of merit-based pay.

Railway workers are worried by government plans to scrap job-for-life guarantees, automatic annual pay rises and generous early retirement. </s> France made the headlines yet again as a wave of an industrial strike was set to hit the European country from Thursday, March 22, onwards. The strikes called across sectors formed the part of the protest against President Emmanuel Macron's reform measures.

As many as seven trade unions appealed to workers in schools, hospitals, public service, air traffic control to carry out the strike while over 140 protests were planned across the country. The protest is expected to culminate at the Bastille monument in Paris where 25,000 demonstrators could gather to make their voices heard.

Besides, railway staff members would also join the Thursday demonstration before flagging off their strikes on two days out of every five between April 3 and June 28 till the time President Macron retreats with his reform plans. The railway strikes are expected to cause massive inconvenience to the commuters since a large number of trains would be cancelled.

Services in schools, hospitals and libraries would also be affected by the strikes while one-third of flights moving in and out of Paris's airports would remain cancelled because the air traffic controllers would remain off duty because of the strike.

A separate strike by the staff of Air France is also on the cards on Friday, March 23, seeking a six per cent salary rise. They have also planned another strike on March 30, AFP reported.

The strikers feel that the pay is not at par with the inflation while President Macron has been accused of ruining the public sector. The reforms would trigger the beginning of the end of the social model, they said.

Macron, who came to power last year with a decisive win over the right-wing Marine Le Pen, vowed to cut 1,20,000 public jobs by 2022 and his government's emphasis on pay on merit rather than experience was perceived by the unions as an attack on people's job security.

For breaking news & Instant updates throughout the day </s> The streets of Paris and Nantes witnessed mammoth protests by thousands of public sector workers along with students marched against the newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, including plans to reform public services and cut jobs. Agitated students went through a face-off with police, who fired tear gas shells in response. Teachers, train conductors, and airline controllers marched all over France on Thursday, March 22. As per media reports, 323,000 people took part in the nationwide protest, while the country’s second-largest trade union, the General Confederation of Labour estimating that the protesters were half a million in number.

Planes, schools, trains and other transport services across France were seriously disrupted on Thursday as unions set up dozens of street protests all over the country. The demonstration was in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to cut retirement benefits, overhaul unemployment insurance. Workers have planned to protest 2 days out of from April to June. In 2017, protests occurred in order to denounce legislation that would make employment contracts more flexible.

ALSO READ: Mass protests by public sector workers in France against French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies

According to official estimates on Thursday, the strikes impacted 40 % of inter-city trains and 30% of the flights. The participation of students in the massive protest marks France’s historic protest of 1968, which was led mainly by students on the same day, March 22, around 50 years ago. Started in French universities, later joined by many union members, the ruckus led to a standstill in the country and compelling the then ruling Charles de Gaulle regime to reform many sectors.

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ALSO READ: French President Emmanuel Macron and PM issue joint statement in Delhi </s> PARIS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of nurses, teachers and other public sector workers joined forces to march against French President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms on Thursday, causing widespread travel disruption and bringing brief clashes with police in some cities.

While the vast majority of around 180 demonstrations nationwide were peaceful, scuffles erupted between police and hooded young protesters in Paris and the western city of Nantes, where security forces fired tear gas and water cannon.

It was the first time public sector workers, ranging from air-traffic controllers to civil servants, had joined with rail workers and pensioners to protest over the economic reforms Macron has sought to introduce since he took office last May.

“We’re here against the government, which is only helping the rich. What this government is doing is simply not OK,” said 65-year-old pensioner Françoise Rauch, a former rail worker who said she was also protesting against higher tax on pensions.

About 323,000 public sectors walked off the job, according to the interior ministry. Unions put the figure at 500,000.

In Paris, protesters denounced Macron’s proposals to trim some retirement benefits, overhaul unemployment insurance and shake up the highly indebted state-run rail company SNCF, with some chanting: “Together, let’s derail Macron!”

But only 13 percent of central government workers walked off the job, down marginally from an October strike, the government said, in a sign that unions may still be struggling to raise the street against the president.

Turnout was much stronger amid railway staff, who halted 60 percent of fast trains and 75 percent of inter-city services, while 30 percent of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled.

French riot police use water cannons during clashes with masked protesters attending a demonstration during a national day of strike against reforms in Paris, France, March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

“It’s a real mess,” said Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the Paris suburbs and had more than an hour’s wait for the next.

Public sector workers are angry with plans to cut the public sector headcount by 120,000 by 2022, including via voluntary redundancies, and oppose the introduction of merit-based pay.

Railway workers are worried by government plans to scrap job-for-life guarantees and automatic annual pay rises.

While rail staff have planned a three-month rolling strike starting on April 3, public sector workers have no plans yet for further action, but they will meet next week to consider it.

About 13.5 percent of teachers walked off the job, the government said, closing many primary schools. Electricity generation dropped by more than three gigawatts, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors’ output, as power workers joined the strike in sympathy.

PARADOX

Opinion polls show a paradox: a majority of voters back the strike but an even bigger majority back the reforms, including cutting the number of public sector workers and introducing merit-based pay.

That has led the government, which overhauled labour laws last year and is crafting other reforms, to say it will stand by its plans while keeping a close eye on protests.

Slideshow (20 Images)

On Tuesday, following a retirees’ march, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government would change tack for the poorest 100,000 out of 7 million pensioners concerned by the tax rise, in a sign that a government that prides itself on being firm on reforms can make exceptions.

“What we need to avoid is that all the grievances fuse together, as was the case in 1995,” a government official said, referring to France’s biggest strike in decades, which forced the government at the time to withdraw reforms. </s> The walk-outs and demonstrations are the latest test of strength for the 40-year-old centrist leader as he pushes ahead with a new phase of his agenda to overhaul the state railways and other public services.

France's once fearsome unions have regularly forced governments into policy U-turns in the past, but Macron and his ministers have vowed not to yield to the pressure despite the prospect of months of disruption.

"There will be a lot of people taking part," the leader of the hard-left CGT union, Philippe Martinez, promised on Wednesday. "If we do nothing, the government will not back down."

The March 22 date was chosen deliberately to echo the start of nationwide protests in 1968 that led to the country's biggest-ever strike and notorious street battles between police and students in Paris in May of that year.

Some commentators have reached into the past to draw parallels with more recent confrontations, particularly to 1995 when weeks of strikes paralysed the country and forced the government to abandon a pension reform.

For France's trade unions, it is a moment for them to show that they still wield power despite decades of declining membership numbers and new laws that have clipped their ability to shut down public services.

But the first round of their battle against Macron in September and October last year -- over changes to labour law -- ended in disappointment and saw the ex-investment banker prevail.

"We are going to continue reforming France in depth... with the certitude that our country needs this transformation to make up for the ground lost over previous decades," Macron told reporters during a trip to India last week.

Surveys show public opinion largely behind his bid to end some of the historic rights of railway workers, including pension benefits and guarantees of a job for life.

The state railway operator SNCF has warned that only 40 percent of high-speed TGV services will be running on Thursday, and just one in four regular trains across the country.

It is the first day of a three-month wave of strikes announced by unions that will see their members walk off the job for two out of every five days between April and June in a new and experimental form of protest.

The disruption is expected to cause a major headache for management even on non-strike days because trains and staff will not be where they are supposed to be.

France's civil aviation authority meanwhile said a third of flights into and out of the main Paris airports of Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais would be cancelled on Thursday because of industrial action by air traffic controllers.

An unknown number of schools are set to be affected, as are some hospitals, due to protests by teachers and health workers over planned changes to the education system and pay and conditions in medical facilities.

More than 140 protests have been planned across France in total, with the biggest of them set to take place at the Bastille monument in central Paris in the afternoon, where unions expect 25,000 demonstrators.

For Macron, France's youngest-ever president, the biggest risk appears to be different groups who are angry at his fast-paced and multi-fronted reform efforts coming together as a united force against him.

As well as public sector workers, he has angered retirees by raising taxes on their pensions and is forcing through an unpopular reduction in the speed limit on major roads.

His political opponents on the left, including the Socialist party which lost power last year and the hard-left France Unbowed party, have said they plan to take part.

Macron's approval rating is at 37 percent, according to a survey by the Ipsos polling group published on Wednesday, with 55 percent holding a negative view of his presidency, the highest level since the start of his term last year.

According to the investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine, Macron told advisors on Monday he was feeling "serene" and said the day of strikes was "not a cause for panic". </s> Police scuffled with protesters in Paris and fired teargas and water cannon in the western city of Nantes as strikes broke out across France yesterday in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron's economic reforms. While unions have struggled to rally crowds over the past months, this is the first protest against Macron bringing together public sector workers and railway staff, potentially spelling trouble for the government ahead of a rolling rail strike.

The date of March 22 also signifies the beginning of nationwide protests back in 1968 in which France was hit by the violent clashes with police in the streets of Paris, strikes and occupations of factories and public buildings.

Train conductors, teachers and air traffic controllers walked out to join more than 150 marches in cities and towns - the first time public sector workers have joined rail staff in protests since Macron came to office in May. Sixty percent of fast trains, 75 percent of inter-city trains and 30 percent of flights to and from Paris airports were cancelled because of the strike. About 13 percent of teachers walked off the job, the education ministry said, closing many primary schools.

Public servants are angry over pay that hasn't kept up with inflation, while unions accuse Macron of wanting to take a sledge-hammer to the public sector. FSU union official Bernadette Groison said the reforms would herald "the end of the social model we know today, with public services that have been broken apart," as reported by AFP.

Macron has pledged to cut 120,000 public jobs and his government has raised the prospect of voluntary redundancies, prompting fears that the quality of services will take a hit. Plans to use more contractors and increasingly offer pay based on merit, rather than on experience, are seen by unions as attacks on traditional job security.

On the railways, plans to strip new recruits of a guaranteed job for life and other benefits have riled unionists who also fear that a restructuring of the SNCF could eventually see it privatized.

Macron's opponents oppose plans to use presidential decrees to pass the rail reforms, a bid to avoid lengthy parliamentary debate that critics say is undemocratic. He already used this strategy to pass labor reforms in September which loosened France's famously strict regulations on hiring and firing workers.

Macron has stayed sanguine through criticism over his reforms, insisting he was elected on a mandate to shake France up. "We're never happy when things change, yet we want things to change -- that's the paradox of France," he tweeted last week.

The president argues the public sector is too bloated and he is keen to trim spending and balance France's national budget by the end of his term, for what would be the first time since the 1970s. His government says the behemoth rail operator in particular is crying out for reform, saddled with 46.6 billion euros ($57.3 billion) of debt.

The SNCF runs trains at a 30 percent higher cost than European neighbors, the government says, arguing it is urgent that it becomes more efficient as EU countries prepare to open passenger rail to competition by 2020. </s> Less than a year after French President Emmanuel Macron rode a wave of reformist optimism to the Elysee Palace, France's vast body of public-sector workers have turned against the country's youngest-ever president as his attempts to loosen France's restrictive labor laws have met with an outraged response from France's 5.4 million civil servants and workers on its state-run rail system.

Rail workers are using Thursday's demonstrations as the start of a prolonged strike that could last until June. Specifically, rail workers are protesting Macron's plan to cut some of the special employment rights for rail workers. From April 3 until June 28, rail unions have planned strikes for two days out of every five.

Macron famously prevailed in a runoff election last Spring, where he defeated National Front candidate Marine Le Pen after founding his own centrist, reform-oriented political movement called En Marche - or "Forward!" in English.

For his part, Macron is hoping the public will respect him for standing firm, and maybe even that the broader public will find the strikes exasperating.

The strike was expected to lead to the cancellation of 60% of fast trains, 75% of inter-city trains and about 30% of Paris airports' flights throughout the day.

A Les Echos poll showed just over half of French people backed Thursday’s strike - but an even larger majority are pushing for the reforms, including cutting the number of public sector workers, what the Express described as a "paradox."

"We are going to continue reforming France in depth ... with the certitude that our country needs this transformation to make up for the ground lost over previous decades," Macron told reporters during a trip to India last week.

As the Guardian explains, Thursday’s strike date was deliberately chosen to echo the start of nationwide protests in 1968 that led to the country’s biggest ever strikes and the notorious street battles between police and students of May 1968.

As Express reported, students clashed with riot police on Thursday, who fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Unions had previously struggled to unite crowds against Macron's reforms. But Thursday was the first protest that brought together both public sector workers, students and railway workers.

"It's a real mess this morning," Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the suburbs and had more than one hour's wait for the next, said at Paris' Gare du Nord station.

According to the Unions, one in four primary schools were on strike, while electricity generation dropped by over three gigawatts (GW), the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, as gas and electricity sector workers joined the strike. Some 150 protest marches were scheduled - including two rallies starting at around 1300 GMT in Paris.

Of course, some of the hostility is due to Macron going back on his campaign promises for better recognition and remuneration. He now seeks to slash budgets, rely more on contract workers, introduce merit-based pay and voluntary redundancies to cut the number of public workers by 120,000 over five years.

The government, which led an overhaul of labor laws last year and is working on a series of other sensitive reforms to programs like unemployment insurance, says it will stand by its plans - though they will keep a close eye on protests.

Though he has promised to maintain a steady hand, Macron will be watching the protests with what we imagine would be a sense of foreboding. Thursday's strike, and the government's reaction, will be a test, said Laurent Berger, the head of France's largest union, CFDT.

"Either they (the government) listen to us and it will have been just a warning shot, or they don't listen to us and then, let me tell you that public sector workers are very mobilised," he told RTL radio. </s> Protesters angry over high fuel prices were expected to block access to French fuel depots and stop traffic on major roads for a fourth day Tuesday, incensed by the government's refusal to scrap anti-pollution taxes.

One person was accidentally killed and 528 people have been injured, 17 seriously, during the "Yellow Vest" protests that have galvanised resistance to President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies.

As the protests rumbled on, it emerged four men were taken into custody and charged as part of an anti-terrorist investigation in the southeastern city of Saint-Etienne on Saturday - the first day of the blockades - accused of planning to take advantage of the police mobilisation for the demonstrations to mount a terror attack, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

One of the suspects texted his fiancee saying, "It's going to bleed on November 17", the newspaper said.

Officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.

On Monday, tens of thousands of demonstrators were still manning hundreds of barricades on motorways and petrol stations, down from nearly 300,000 protesters at over 2,000 sites on Saturday.

Oil giant Total confirmed that some of its trucks had been prevented from reaching depots in the south and east of the country, causing alarm among small business owners.

"The worst thing would be to block the economy and make the whole situation worse," Alain Griset, head of the U2P federation of small and medium-sized businesses said in a statement.

On Monday, security forces cleared protesters from several sites, including a suspension bridge leading to the southwestern city of Bordeaux that had been blocked for three days.

'Much more than fuel'

The "Yellow Vest" movement - named after the high-visibility vests motorists are required to carry in their cars - was sparked by rising diesel prices, which many blame on taxes implemented in recent years as part of France's anti-pollution fight.

It quickly snowballed into a protest by rural and small-town France over falling spending power of the less well-off under Macron, assailed as a "president of the rich".

"It's about much more than fuel. They (the government) have left us with nothing," Dominique, a 50-year-old unemployed technician told AFP at a roadblock in the town of Martigues, near the southern city of Marseille.

Macron's government, which is trying to buff its environmental credentials, has vowed not to back down on trying to wean people off their cars through fuel taxes.

While the number of protesters has fallen since the weekend, in tandem with plummeting temperatures, further large-scale demonstrations are planned.

Two separate calls for mass protests in Paris on November 24 were widely circulated on social media.

The start of the protests was marred by the death of a 63-year-old demonstrator, who was run down by a panicked motorist at a roadblock in the eastern Savoie region.

Several other people were injured in attempts by truck drivers and motorists to force their way through barricades.

A 32-year-old man was sentenced to four months in prison Monday for endangering life by taking part in a human chain on a highway in the northeast of France.

Fresh clashes Sunday in the "yellow vest" fuel price protests across France led to more injuries to add to the more than 400 already reported by Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.

Although the protests appeared to be less widespread than those seen at the 87 locations tallied by the interior ministry overnight, protestors again clashed with police - and sometimes motorists.

Sunday's protests touched several regions across France, but their intensity appeared to be diminishing, according to AFP journalists.

Police were searching for a motorist who forced a road block at Saint-Quentin, northeast France, leaving one protestor seriously injured.

And police used tear gas to break up a gathering of about a thousand protestors near the northern city of Caen, after vandalism of traffic radar and the burning of wooden pallets.

Earlier Sunday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner reported that the first day and night of protests had left one person dead and more than 400 people hurt, 14 seriously.

The injury toll followed what Castaner described as a "restive" night in 87 locations around the country, where protesters had blocked roads to express their anger at a series of hikes in petrol tax.

The injured, 409 in total, included 28 police, paramilitary police or firefighters.

French retail group Auchan reported violent incidents at around 20 shopping centres where it operates hypermarkets.

Castaner told RTL radio that 288,000 people had taken part in Saturday's protests at 2,034 locations countrywide.

About 3,500 stayed out overnight, he added.

Police questioned 282 protesters in total, 73 during the night, of whom 157 were taken into custody.

"Last night was restive... There were assaults, fights, stabbings," Castaner said.

"There were fights among 'yellow vest' protesters."

Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday the government was aware of unhappiness over high fuel taxes, but said it had "a duty" to transform the French economy with the aim of making it less oil-dependent.

A poll published Sunday in the Journal de Dimanche weekly said that 62 percent of those questioned believed their purchasing power was more important than a fast transition towards renewable energy.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was to appear on national TV Sunday evening to discuss the protests.
People in 150 places across France take to the streets peacefully in a general strike to protest President Macron's economic reforms. Railways, airways, schools and power generation are affected.