Railway strikes disrupt train services in France

With no sign of an end to the standoff between the French government and trade unions over labor reform, traffic in France was affected by a railway strike which entered its second day on Thursday.

Fifteen percent of the country's railway workers stopped work, meaning four regional trains out of 10 were running and 30 percent of inter-city links were operational, the state-run railway company SNCF said.

Only 40 percent of the TGV high speed trains kept their schedules unchanged. The Eurostar service connecting Paris and Britain and Thalys connecting to Germany ran as normal, but those going to Spain and Italy were disrupted.

Three French unions called for rolling strikes to force the government to revoke a contested labor law which they say would create more low-paid jobs, affect workers' rights, and worsen working conditions.

As time is counting down to the European football tournament which begins on June 10, the CGT union, a harsh opponent of the reform, was seeking to broaden the industrial action by inviting air traffic controllers and bus workers to join the anti-labor-law strike to put more pressure on the government.

Meanwhile, a strike by 9 percent of workers at a French utility company has cut power to more than a million homes in the French capital and suburbs. As many as 125,000 households suffered power cuts in Saint-Nazaire in western France.

The head of the powerful CGT union, Philippe Martinez, pledged on Thursday "the strongest mobilization in three months."

However, the CGT is likely isolated in its efforts to make the ruling Socialist Party reconsider the reform.

Unsa, the SNCF's second main union, earlier in the day lifted the strike call after securing a deal with the government to better improve work conditions.

Furthermore, unions cancelled a two-day strike of air traffic control staff scheduled for Friday.

"There'll be no disruption of the airways this weekend," transport minister Alain Vidalies told France Info radio.

As for the railway strike, Vidalies said "traffic is disrupted but it continues to operate."

An Ifop opinion poll for Le Figaro magazine showed 60 percent of respondents thought the CGT was abusing the right to strike.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Manuel Valls resorted to a decree to push through the law without a parliamentary vote.

Surviving a no-confidence vote, the government won the first round of a legislative battle to adopt the bill which automatically passed its first reading in the National Assembly.

It has the right to use the same decree to pass the text in following readings.

The final vote on the contested labor reform bill is expected in July. Endit