Flights and trains were halted, schools were shut and newspapers failed to appear in France today when workers staged a major 24-hour strike against unpopular pension reforms.
Trade unions launched the strike, the second in a month, against president Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60.
The stoppages closed many schools, forced airlines to cancel nearly half of flights and disrupted intercity rail services, but international train links were mostly unaffected.
Unions hoped nationwide street marches would match or top the scale of protests on September 7th, which were attended by millions of workers, and oblige the government to back down over the flagship reform of Mr Sarkozy's five-year term.
"If the government doesn't alter its intransigent position, it will obviously be our duty and responsibility as unions to envisage further initiatives," said Bernard Thibault, head of the large CGT union.
Protesters took to the streets in cities across the country ahead of a rally in the capital, and initial media reports said turnout looked broadly on a par with the last time, when up to 2.7 million people protested. .
Up to half of flights were cancelled at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and 40 to 50 per cent of flights were scrapped in other regions, according to airport authorities.
Many national train services were equally hit but Eurostar rail links with Britain ran normally and other international links were close to full service, the state railway said. The Paris metro ran at about three-quarters of normal service.
A partial strike disrupted programming at public radio stations France Info and France Inter.
The government says the legislation is essential to erase a growing deficit in the pay-as-you-go pension system, curb rising public debt and preserve France's AAA credit rating, which enables it to borrow at the lowest financial market rates.
Labour minister Eric Woerth, in charge of steering the bill through parliament, vowed to press ahead regardless, telling reporters yesterday there was no alternative. "If you don't reform it, it simply won't be viable and we won't be able to pay French people's pensions," Mr Woerth said.
The unrest mirrors action elsewhere in Europe as indebted governments cut back on spending, notably in Greece and Spain, where more protests loom in the next two weeks in response to some of the harshest austerity measures in the euro zone.
French unions and the left-wing opposition say the plans to raise the retirement age to 62 by 2018, raise civil servants' contributions to private sector levels and make people work longer for a full pension are unjust.
They will be harshest on those who start work young or in physically gruelling jobs, and on women who take career breaks for children and will have to work till 67 for full pensions.
The lower house of parliament adopted the bill last week but it still has to go through the Senate, which is due to debate the measure next month. The ruling centre-right parties have a majority in the upper house too, but some conservative senators have said they will seek to amend the bill.
Socialist party leader Martine Aubry urged supporters not to give up, highlighting that mass protests had forced a previous conservative government to withdraw a low-wage youth employment contract in 2006 even after parliament had adopted it.
The unions will meet tomorrow to decide what to do next, with some such as Force Ouvriere and the radical Sud Rail pressing for rolling strikes, but not the larger unions so far.
Political analysts question whether workers will be willing to sacrifice several days' pay to confront a government which appears resolute, although an opinion poll published today suggested opposition to the reform remains high.
The poll by Viavoice showed 59 percent opposed raising the retirement age to 62, and 63 per cent backed the protests.
Mr Sarkozy has made the pension reform a key part of his legacy and a potential springboard for a widely expected re-election bid in 2012. To back down would leave his reform in tatters.
Ministers have expressed willingness to make concessions on side issues such as the definition of arduous work qualifying for earlier retirement, and the plight of those with fragmented pension rights, but not on the key part of the reform.
Reuters