French transport minister warns of traffic disruption by protest against Macron's reforms

PARIS, March 21 (Xinhua) -- French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borner Wednesday warned of a possible traffic disruption triggered by a nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron's controversial reforms.

"There will ultimately be serious disruption tomorrow," Borne told RMC radio, saying both train services and air traffic will be affected.

Civil servants and public services workers, including teachers and health staff, decided to walk out in French cities on March 22 to express their anger over the government's plan to reduce their number by 120,000 within five years and expand the use of short-term contracts.

The movement will be reinforced by stoppages at train services and cancellation of scheduled flights at France's main airports.

Half of regional trains would run on Thursday with four out of 10 high-speed TGV would be operational, according to the minister.

The DGAC air transport authority, for its part, said it would reduce by 30 percent its flight schedule from and to Orly, Charles-de-Gaulles and Beauvais airports due to national strike action. It added long-haul fights would not be impacted.

"If the goal is to disrupt users as much as possible, to disrupt the public service, I think that's not what we can expect from trade union action," Borne said, stressing that "social dialogue is the only way possible in the interest of the public service."

140 rallies are planned across French cities on Thursday to show "a shared concern to defend the public service" said Jean-Marc Canon, head of general union of CGT civil servants' federations.

Toughest is heading for French president as trade unions called rail workers to stage strike in two out of every five days over a three-month period from April 3 in a protest to his plan to revamp the state-run rail operator SNCF. Enditem