French railways workers were urged Friday to join civil servants in a nationwide day of protest next month against President Emmanuel Macron's reform agenda in what will be a major test of strength, reports The Straits Times.
The leader of the country's biggest public-sector trade union, the CGT, called the rail protests on March 22nd over plans by the government to remove some of the privileges enjoyed by workers on the train network.
The trigger was a major report recommending an overhaul of the debt-laden and loss-making SNCF rail system which was submitted to Macron's centrist government on Thursday.
"Rail workers will organise a national protest day on March 22nd and of course rail workers will defend public services, their jobs and their status," the head of the CGT Philippe Martinez told France Inter radio.
Civil servants are also set to demonstrate the same day over a proposed shake up that will see some workers offered redundancy packages and higher use of short-term contracts.
Macron wants to cut 120,000 public sector jobs over the course of his five-year term.
The 40-year-old leader faced a first series of demonstrations led by the CGT in September and October last year over his reforms to the labour code, which were unsuccessful in preventing the changes becoming law.
The victory for the government led to questions about whether the once fearsome French trade unions are still able to mobilise large crowds and cripple public services.
The demonstrations on March 22 coincide with the 50th anniversary of a major student protest at a university near Paris in 1968, a precursor to the nationwide strikes that roiled the country in May of the same year.
Large demonstrations and strikes are a common feature of French democracy and have repeatedly forced governments into policy U-turns in the past, but Macron has vowed to press ahead.
The most sensitive part of the rail report submitted on Thursday suggests that new railway workers should not be given the same historic employment privileges as their colleagues, such as early retirement and life-long job security.
Read more of this AFP report published by The Straits Times.