Unions dig in to fight Macron’s plans for workers’ retirement
FRUSTRATED travellers were caught in a second day of transportation chaos around France as unions dug in for what they hope is a protracted strike against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to redesign the national retirement system.
Most French trains were at a halt – including Paris subways – and traffic jams multiplied around the country.
The Palace of Versailles stayed shut for a second day because of the nationwide strike, and the Louvre Museum warned visitors to expect delays and some closed galleries.
The Eiffel Tower reopened after an all-day closure on Thursday, but tourists from around the world remained challenged by strike-related disruptions.
“I arrived in Paris today, but I have been stuck for around two hours just trying to find a bus or a train,” visitor Zaeen Shoii from Pakistan said while at the Gare de l’Est train station. “But everything has been delayed so I’m just waiting for the next bus now.”
Emboldened by the biggest outpouring of public anger in years, unions announced plans for new nationwide, “inter-generational” protests on Tuesday over a reform they see as an attack on hard-won workers’ rights.
At least 800,000 people young and old marched on Thursday as strikes shut schools and some public services and disrupted hospitals and refineries.
Police fired repeated volleys of tear gas and protesters set fires on a rampage around eastern Paris. Most demonstrators were peaceful, however, and the violence by an extremist fringe didn’t deter unions from urging people across French society to join the new protests next week.
Mr Macron is determined to push through the changes to France’s convoluted and relatively generous retirement system, seeing them as central to his plans to transform the French economy.
‘I have been stuck for two hours just trying to find a bus or a train’