Public transport chaos bites deep as French strikes enter fifth day

Parisians turning to cars cause gridlock as unions protest against pension reform plan

Commuters walking on a platform at Gare Saint-Lazare train station yesterday as a strike continues against the French government's pension reform plans in Paris. Citing safety risks, the SNCF national rail network warned travellers to stay home. PHOT
Commuters walking on a platform at Gare Saint-Lazare train station yesterday as a strike continues against the French government's pension reform plans in Paris. Citing safety risks, the SNCF national rail network warned travellers to stay home. PHOTO: REUTERS

PARIS • Drivers on two Paris metro lines voted yesterday to extend a walkout until the end of the week as France grappled with a fifth day of strikes, a sign that transport workers will keep up a fight against President Emmanuel Macron's plans to streamline pensions.

The week ahead will test Mr Macron's mettle and his ability to deliver the social and economic change he says is necessary for France to compete with powers like China and the United States.

The public sector strike has hit the transport sector the hardest. In Paris, train, bus and metro services faced severe disruption and monster tailbacks clogged the roads as commuters took to their cars.

Citing safety risks, the SNCF national rail network warned travellers to stay home or use "alternative means of locomotion" to get to work yesterday instead of thronging platforms in hopes of getting the few available trains.

As a result, the national road authority reported more than 600km of traffic problems at rush hour around the Paris region - up from 150km on an average day.

The road traffic was worse yesterday than when the strike started last week because many French employees managed to work from home or take a day off then. But that is proving increasingly difficult as the strike wears on.

Only about a sixth of French trains were running yesterday, and only two of Paris' 16 subway lines were functioning normally. International lines also saw disruptions, and union activists blocked bus depots around Paris.

Airports and airlines, however, were expected to function normally yesterday.

Public transport workers were expected to be joined by garbage collectors and employees from schools and state-owned utilities in action to disrupt cities across the country as they seek to put pressure on the President.

After months of consultations, Mr Macron's pension czar, Mr Jean-Paul Delevoye, was scheduled to meet union leaders later yesterday before presenting his reform proposals to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

"We will see if he has not just listened, but heard," Mr Philippe Martinez, leader of the CGT union, France's largest in the public sector, told France Info radio. "They have to pull the reform."

That appears unlikely.

Mr Philippe told the weekly Journal du Dimanche that he was determined to see through the overhaul of what is one of the most generous pension systems among developed industrialised nations.

The Prime Minister will present details of the government's plan tomorrow. It is not expected to change the official retirement age of 62 - but it is expected to encourage people to work longer.

The unions have called for mass protests today and the government will be watching closely to see if more than the 800,000 who marched through French cities last Thursday turn out.

Mr Macron wants to replace the convoluted system comprising more than 40 separate pension plans, each with varying benefits, with a single, points-based system under which for each euro contributed, every pensioner has equal rights.

Public sector unions fret that their workers will come out worse because under the current system, the state makes up for the chronic shortfall between contributions and payouts in the sector.

The unions, fighting to show that they remain relevant after Mr Macron loosened the labour code and reformed the state-run SNCF, also fret that they will lose influence over contributions and benefits under a centrally managed points-based system.

Who emerges victor will in part hinge on the battle for public opinion. Surveys ahead of the strikes showed that the public was relatively evenly split.

On the metro yesterday, there was both sympathy and irritation towards the strikers.

"I don't understand. It's not the right way to do things, for (metro operator) RATP to block people like this," said commuter Charles Ramm. "It will turn against the unions."

Accountant Lamia Massoudi said she backed the strike, even if it meant inconveniences.

"I'm with them," Ms Massoudi said.

Meanwhile, the strike has squeezed retailers in the run-up to Christmas, raising the prospect of another bleak year end after the unrest caused by the yellow vests protests late last year.

"This weekend was catastrophic: Paris was empty, restaurants and brasseries, even fast food was impacted, with some losing up to 50 per cent of their sales," said a spokesman for the GNI-Synhorcat alliance of restaurant and hotel owners.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 10, 2019, with the headline Public transport chaos bites deep as French strikes enter fifth day. Subscribe