Paris (HRNW) – Turnout was sharply down on Thursday for new strikes in France against a bitterly opposed pension reform being debated in parliament, with union heads hoping for a bigger showdown to come.
The fifth day of action against President Emmanuel Macron’s reform — whose headline measure is raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 — aims to keep up the pressure ahead of a wider mass walkout, planned for March 7.
But unlike previous strike days, most main line trains and the Paris metro were running normally, as fewer workers participated during school holidays across most of France.
That was reflected in education ministry figures showing fewer than eight percent of teachers on strike, half last week’s level.
Employees at state-controlled energy giant EDF said they had lowered output by more than 3,000 megawatts, or the equivalent of three nuclear power plants, without affecting supply to end users.
On Wednesday, many hydroelectric plants had been disconnected from the grid.
On Thursday, 30 percent of flights from Paris’ Orly airport were cancelled.
Demonstrators turned out across France carrying signs including “retirement before arthritis” or “why not 69 years, if you’re going to screw us?”