The Paris police prefect announced Wednesday evening that municipal employees are to be requistioned to begin clearing up rubbish that has been piling and rotting in the streets of the capital due to a nine-day and now extended strike by refuse collectors protesting at pension reform plans that would see their retirement age raised from 57 to 59.
Some of France's General Practitioners have gone on strike for an increase in standard fees, currently set at a lowest rate of 25 euros per appointment and notably highlighting their claimed workload of an average 55 hours per week, just as the country faces an epidemic of infections including flu and Covid-19.
French teachers and other education workers staged a nationwide strike on Thursday, accompanied by street marches whih official figures said drew a turnout of 78,000, in protest at what they say are the government's too demanding and regularly changing anti-Covid measures to keep schools open.
Organisers of the industrial action say the health of both students and teachers is at risk due to insufficient protocols to protect against the virus.
Several hundred workers at an Amazon warehouse and shipping centre near Orléans in north-central France staged a strike on Wednesday over their fears of exposure to the Covid-19 coronavirus, calling for the site's closure or for a dispensation for those staff who wished to stay at home.
Meanwhile ministers inched towards a deal with one labour union to try to end some of the longest public sector strikes in the country’s postwar history.
The CFDT union is opposed to transport strikes over Christmas period but will call for new actions in January if the government does not drop a key pension reform proposal.
The Paris transport network was severely disrupted on Friday as staff unions led a one-day strike over proposed government reforms to their pension benefits as part of a plan to merge France's 42 different pension schemes into a single points-based system.
French hospitals are witnessing an unprecedented nationwide strike movement by paramedical personnel in Accident and Emergency (A&E) services in protest over under-staffing, patient over-crowding, inadequate equipment and poor wages. Despite short-term financial measures announced by the government in June to defuse the situation, the movement has snowballed from 60 hospitals in March to more than 200 this month, when A&E doctors announced they too may now take strike action over what they called “catastrophic” working conditions. Rouguyata Sall reports on the deepening crisis and talks to members of Inter-Urgences, the collective leading the strike movement.
On May 25th some 200 emergency department nursing staff met in Paris to discuss their growing strike action, which has so far been largely ignored by the government. A national demonstration will be held in the French capital on June 6th as part of their protest over what they claim are overcrowded casualty wards, a lack of beds and a shortage of staff. Accident and emergency doctors are now also calling for a walk-out. Caroline Coq-Chodorge reports on a growing protest within the French health system.
French public sector workers held a one-day strike on Tuesday against reforms planned by President Emmanuel Macron's government, which include the shedding of 120,000 jobs, notably disrupting transport, educational and energy services in a third day of action that also saw 130 demonstrations across the country.
France's civil aviation authority has warned of significant disruption to flights during a strike from Monday evening to Wednesday morning by French air-traffic controllers in support of demands for increased pay and staff numbers, part of a series of public sector strikes called for Tuesday.
On April 17th this year, with the rail strike in full swing, a manager at the busiest railway station in Paris, the Gare du Nord, asked colleagues to create a database on workers who were most active on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Unions have condemned the action, saying they fear the firm wants to muzzle staff involved in the industrial action, while lawyers say the move is completely illegal. The state rail company SNCF, meanwhile, dismisses it simply as a “clumsy” local initiative not connected with the strike. Dan Israel reports.
