International

Labour strike bites harder in France as rail workers join standoff

Published

8 years ago

June 1, 2016

Labour strike bites harder in France as rail workers join standoff

The current strike action embarked upon by labour unions in France is currently biting harder as rail workers joined the standoff thereby halting about half of all French train services on Wednesday in a dispute over working time.

This follows a standoff between the militant CGT union and the Socialist government over a proposed labour law reform which has been dragging on for weeks now.

The SNCF state railway said six out of 10 high-speed TGV trains were running, along with one-third of other inter-city services and half of regional trains. Heavy flooding also cut some lines in central France and the rail link to Luxembourg.

SNCF said 17 per cent of its staff were on strike, up slightly from a previous strike last week, and forecast similar levels of traffic for Thursday. The CGT is also on strike at oil refineries and one-fifth of petrol stations are short of fuel.

The Socialist government played down the disruption and stuck to its refusal to withdraw the planned labour reform, designed to make hiring and firing easier and encourage negotiations on flexibility at company level.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now