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TechnoratiA million rally for French retirement
Some one million people are demonstrating in France on Thursday during a general strike to protest against the government’s planned retirement reform. Transport, post, schools, civil service, telecoms and television services are disrupted.
France Télécom said some 21.5 per cent of its 100,000 workers are on strike. Television technicians and journalists have been called to the strike.
Teachers have been called. Snuipp, the teachers’ union, said neary 40 per cent of teachers would join. But the minister of education said there are only 15.99 per cent of primary teachers and 12.27 per cent of secondary teachers are participating. According to the Snes-FSU union the number is 30 per cent
About 12.80 per cent of postal workers and 11.6 per cent of civil servants are on strike.
“There will be a million or more demonstrators in France,” said the secretary general of the CFDT trade union François Chérèque and the head of CGT union, Bernard Thibault, said “we’re not far off a million.”
International train services are mainly unaffected. Eurostar, Thalys, TGV Lyria and TGV Artesia are operating normal services, but the Talgo de jour trains between France and Spain are cancelled.
TGV trains to and from Paris have minor disruptions on the Nice, Avignon, Tarbes and Loire lines. Half the inter-province TGVs are running.
One intercity train in two is working in the north. In the East, service is normal.
The Paris/Rouen/Le Havre and the Paris/Nevers lines are unaffected.
Two thirds of Paris/Caen/Cherbourg trains are running.
Half the Paris/Granville trains and a quarter of the Paris/Bourges are running
Two trains out of every three on the Paris/Orléans/Tours are in action.
On Thursday night one quarter of the Elipsos trains will be running between Spain and France. Artesia trains and the lines to Germany are working.
No trains are going to Irun, Port Bou, Vintimille or Luxembourg.
Rames TGV trains:
- Brussels / Bordeaux : one journey each way
- Lille / Bordeaux : three journeys each way
- Lille / Rennes : one journey each way
- Lille / Nantes : one journey each way
- Lille / Brive : one journey each way
- Brussels / Marseille : three journeys each way
- Lille / Marseille : one journey each way
- Brussels / Montpellier : three trains from Brussels to Montpellier, one in the other direction
- Lille / Montpellier : no trains from Lille to Montpellier, two in the other direction
- Lille / Strasbourg : normal service
Intercity trains:
Five journeys each way from Paris to Amiens.
One each way between Paris and Boulogne.
Four trains each way between Paris and Saint Quentin.
Two trains each way between Paris and Maubeuge.
In Paris, RER and metro services are nearly normal, although RER line B is providing two or three trains out of four.
In Marseille, trams and metros are running a normal service.
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