France's nine main unions united for the first time in a decade in public sector protests against President Emmanuel Macron's plans to freeze pay and shed 120,000 state workers in five years, reports The Telegraph.
Thirty per cent of flights were cancelled from French airports and many schools shut, yet in a boost to Mr Macron's reform drive, turnout was relatively low; police said 209,000 people from among France's 5.4 million public workers took to the streets around France, while unions said it was double the number.
The education ministry said less than a fifth of the country's teachers had gone on strike and public transport was running more or less normally.
There were a few sporadic clashes between protesters in Paris and police, who made eight arrests.
The protests were the fourth round of demonstrations in France since September aimed at forcing France's 39-year-old centrist head of state to reverse reforms, which unions called a "deep disappointment".
"In the space of a few weeks, Macron has gone from being Jupiter to Thatcher without any warning," said Pierre-Marie Ganozzi from the FSU, France's biggest state sector union in the southern Bouche-du-Rhône département.
The French president's plans to water down a wealth tax have seen the Left dub him "president of the rich". He has also faced accusations from opponents and the unions of treating workers with contempt after he was recorded describing a group of workers at a struggling factory as "wreaking fxxxing havoc".
The outburst came weeks after he blasted opponents of reform as "slackers".
As crowds gathered near Paris's Place de la République, one placard read "Slackers of the world unite", while another featured portraits of Mr Macron, his prime minister and finance minister reading: "The ones wreaking f-ing havoc."
But the movement has so far not reached the scale seen as necessary to force the government into major U-turns, analysts say.
On Monday, Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, insisted the government had no plans to change course, while assuring public sector workers they were "not at all unappreciated".
The government has announced plans to cut spending by 16 billion euros (£14.3bn) next year via measures that include freezing civil servants' pay and cutting nearly 1,600 public jobs - the first of 120,000 posts to go by 2022. State sector worker are angered at his plans to reduce sick leave compensation by making the first day unpaid.