France backs Macron in standoff with rail unions, poll shows

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron is squaring off against rail unions with most voters on his side, a poll showed, as a labour force with a history of confrontation threatens open-ended strike action over his plan to modernise the state-run company.

On Wednesday his government backed a bill to fast-track through parliament the biggest shake-up of debt-ridden state-run operator SNCF since the railways were nationalised in 1930s, including ending the right to jobs for life and removing early retirement provisions.

The four main SNCF unions, whose protests over reform plans in 1995 forced a u-turn from then prime minister Alain Juppe from which he never recovered, will decide on Thursday whether to call nationwide rolling strikes.

Thursday Odoxa survey showed two in every three French believe that response is unjustified, pointing to broad public backing for Macron’s ambitious shake-up.

In daring to reform the generous and costly working conditions of railworkers, Macron is treading where past French leaders have shied away.

The battle over the future of the SNCF is as much a test of the mettle of unions, who have seen their influence decline as public appetite for industrial action wanes, as for Macron’s stomach for driving through his reform agenda.

The Odoxa poll showed respondents were less convinced than previously that any unrest could paralyse France as in the past.

In 1995, the more than three weeks of transport strikes spearheaded by the hard-left CGT enjoyed popular support and drew in stoppages in other industries.