(With Reuters) Rail and air traffic will continue to be affected today and over the weekend as protests against French government plans to raise the pension age by two years continue.
Rail operator SNCF is predicting two TER trains in five will run over the next few days. This will have an impact on service to and from Monaco Monte-Carlo.
In the air, the Civil Aviation Authority has called for the cancellation of 30 percent of flights from Orly, Nice and other provincial airports, and 20 percent from Paris CDG, as air traffic controllers take part in the so-called inter-professional industrial action.
Traffic jams have added to travel difficulties due to the public transportation problems.
On Friday strike action cut power to the large sports arena Stade de France and to some of the construction work for the 2024 Olympic village in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis on the outskirts of Paris.
A dozen members of the Electricity and Gas industry (IEG) walked out of offices that control the area’s electricity supply. They told reporters they had also cut power to three data centres in Saint-Denis and to all the commercial centres around Stade de France.
The outage is part of ongoing industrial action triggered by the government’s plans to delay the state pension age by two years to 64, Frederic Probel, secretary general of the related union CGT Energie, said.
“We promised a dark week in the energy sector, and it has been dark,” Probel told a crowd of about 300 workers in Bagneux, also on the outskirts of Paris.
Strikes that began on Tuesday have also disrupted deliveries of fuel, leading to shortages at petrol stations, mainly in north-west France and the Paris region.
Striking workers stand in front of a power control centre as they cut power to the large sports arena Stade de France and the Olympic village in the northern suburb of Saint-Ouen, near Paris, March 9, 2023. REUTERS/Noemie Olive
