France's rolling rail strikes disrupt businesses

Unions are protesting plans to open up to competition from private operators in line with EU regulations, as well as reduce benefits afforded to railway workers such as the ability to retire a decade earlier than other public sector workers.

The rolling strikes, due to stretch on until the end of June, entered a new, more testing phase for unions after parliament's lower house approved the railway reform bill they are fighting. (April 24, 2018)
Reuters

The rolling strikes, due to stretch on until the end of June, entered a new, more testing phase for unions after parliament's lower house approved the railway reform bill they are fighting. (April 24, 2018)

French railway workers are continuing their series of two-day strikes against President Emmanuel Macron's reform plans.

Unions plan rolling train strikes through the end of June, and other sectors are also holding scattered walkouts as discontent mounts against Macron's changes to the French economy - but farmers aren't too happy about it. 

"If this strike carries on with the same intensity we've seen so far, many industrial firms will be confronted with serious shortages of parts that would lead to stopping production lines," says Christian Rose from the Association of Freight Transport Users.

Macron, a former investment banker, argues that worker protections stifle growth and innovation and that the French lifestyle is no longer tenable in the 21st-century global economy.

Elena Casas reports from Paris. 

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