France braces for nationwide strikes over Macron's reform drive
Widespread strikes across France’s transport and public sectors took place on Thursday in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s labor code overhaul. Less than half of all long-distance high-speed TGV trains and fewer than a third of all commuter trains were not operating. Moreover, 30% of flights leaving Paris airports were canceled. Civil servants, teachers, and hospital workers also participated in the roughly 140 rallies across the country. Macron’s sweeping labor reform agenda includes plans to eliminate jobs-for-life guarantees for civil servants, reductions in retirement packages for public-sector workers, and cuts to government employment levels by 2022. Thursday’s protests marked the beginning of a three-month wave of strikes by France’s transport workers. They plan to strike two out of every five days between April and June.
See "France braces for nationwide strikes over Macron's reform drive", Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Jim Bittermann, CNN, March 23, 2018