Strikers cut power to parts of Paris suburbs

PARIS — Opening another front in their battle against the French government, protesting workers cut power to thousands of Parisians on Tuesday, plunging homes into darkness and shutting down trains to one of the capital’s main airports.

The deliberate outage lasted around two hours. It hit users in the southern suburbs of Paris, which include the Orly international airport and the Rungis market, which supplies food to the Paris region.

Franck Jouanno, a local leader of the leftist CGT union, said power grid workers targeted the area because it is one of “the economic lungs of Europe.”

“It’s symbolic,” Jouanno said of the power cut.

The CGT is pushing for a complete withdrawal of the French government’s plans to overhaul the country’s pension system. The planned reforms have triggered six weeks of protests and crippling transport strikes.

But with many striking transport workers now returning to work, and train services largely restored in Paris and nationwide, protesters are looking for other methods to keep up the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist government.

Jouanno described the Paris households that lost power when families were starting their day as “collateral damage.”

“It bothers me, but unfortunately there is always an impact and a power cut isn’t the end of the world,” he told broadcaster BFM-TV

Power was cut to the automated shuttle train that serves Orly airport. The shuttle’s operator, the RATP, said thousands of users were affected and that it “firmly condemns this act of malice.” Buses were used to transport passengers instead.

Power supplier Enedis said the cut affected 35,000 of its customers.

Macron, who is trying to blend scores of separate pension systems and rules into a universal pension, says his plan will be fairer to all workers and will be sustainable as the country ages. But workers in sectors who can now sometimes retire earlier than the official age of 62 don’t want to lose their special privileges.