Aside from great fashion, food and wine,the French are quickly becoming known for their mnay strikes. The head of France’s biggest union said a million workers had rallied to demand action to protect jobs and wages. But despite the show of public support, the strike appeared to be falling short of the paralysis forecast by unions.
It is affecting the many forms of transport from local to long distance travel. Regional trains and those in and around Paris were hit, and a third of flights from Orly airport were cancelled. Forty per cent of regional services were running, train operator SNCF said, and 60% of high-speed TGV services. Three-quarters of metro trains were running in Paris.
Paris’s second airport was heavily hit by the strike, but flights out of the larger Charles de Gaulle hub were experiencing only short delays, AFP news agency said.
According to a 25 January poll by CSA-Opinion for Le Parisien, 69% of the French public backs the strike. "I’m tired and frozen after waiting half-an-hour on the platform," commuter Sandrine Dermont told AFP as she arrived by train in Paris. "But I’m prepared to accept that when it’s a movement to defend our spending power and jobs. I’ll join the street protests during my lunch break," she said.
