French trade unions staged fresh nationwide strikes on Tuesday, bringing the country to a standstill, as they stepped up their fight against President Emanuel Macron's controversial pension reform plans.
The sixth day of industrial action since mid-January, joined by truck drivers and garbage collectors, caused widespread disruption to commuter and high-speed train services, halted fuel deliveries and shut numerous schools.
This is a critical time for the government, which is hoping the reform will be adopted by parliament later this month.
Looking to pile pressure on lawmakers not to raise the pension age by two years to 64, France's more hardline unions said there would be rolling strikes this time, which could go on for days, including at oil refineries and on the railways.
"We will continue until the reform is withdrawn," the head of the Force Ouvriere (FO) union, Frederic Souillot, told RTL radio.
Macron's proposal to make people work longer is deeply unpopular amongst the wider public, opinion polls show. Street protests are expected to take place in more than 300 towns and cities.
There were reports of students blocking schools while BFM TV showed footage of workers abandoning cars on the side of the road near Amiens in northern France as others blocked access to an industrial zone.
"Together ... let's bring France to a halt!" the country's main unions said in a joint statement.
"This reform is unfair," said Aurelie Herkous, who works in public finance in the Normandy town of Pont Audemer. "Macron offers tax gifts to companies ... he's got to stop coming down on the same people time after time."
Rolling strikes?
France's leading trade unions have so far acted with rare unity, but the coming days and weeks will be a test of their ability to maintain that united front.
The CFDT, now France's biggest trade union and generally reform-minded, has not committed to the rolling strikes sought by the hard-left CGT, FO and others.
"The CFDT will propose other types of social mobilization," Laurent Berger, head of the union, said in a radio interview on Monday.
While the government will be looking for divisions to emerge between the unions in the hope it weakens the movement, the CGT and FO, which are powerful within the transport and energy sectors, would still be able to bring significant disruption even without the CFDT participation.
The government insists its reform plan is essential to ensure the pension system does not go bust.
"I can understand that not many people want to work two more years, but it's necessary to ensure the viability of the system," French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told France 5 TV.
While Macron's camp does not have an absolute majority in parliament, it can count on the support of at least part of the conservative Les Republicains (LR).
"I'm telling Emmanuel Macron to hang in there," LR senator Bruno Retailleau has said. "If he gives in, he won't be able to carry out more reforms, it would be the end of his (second) term."
Even so, the legislation is having a bumpy path through parliament and Macron and his government may yet be forced to use special constitutional powers to bypass a parliamentary vote.
"We are going into a higher gear," the head of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told weekly JDD. "The ball is now in president (Macron)'s court. It is up to him to withdraw this reform."
Some travelers affected by the strike said they backed it even if it made going to work tricky, with only one in five high-speed trains running, almost all regular Intercity trains canceled, and the Paris metro seriously disrupted.
"Of course, it has an impact on me because I need to go to work like everyone else," security guard Alex Cristea said at the Paris Saint-Lazare train station. "But I support them for what they do... it's of utmost importance."
Fuel deliveries, refining disrupted
Meanwhile, fuel deliveries and refining were disrupted at several French refinery and storage sites operated by TotalEnergies and Esso on Tuesday because of the strike, while the power supply was also reduced.
A total of 9.9 gigawatts (GW) of electricity production from nuclear, thermal and hydropower stations was removed from the grid due to the strikes, an EDF spokesperson said.
France has been a net power importer for most of the day, earlier reaching a peak of about 12 gigawatts (GW), data from grid operator RTE showed.
However, the strike is also lowering demand for energy, Kpler analyst Emeric de Vigan said in a tweet.
Real-time consumption is lower than forecasts on Monday, which were already 4 GW lower than average at current temperatures, he added.
On the refining side, the CGT union said that shipments were affected as well as refinery operations at both TotalEnergies and Esso sites, and that they were "producing less fuel."
However, a spokesperson for Esso, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, said that while deliveries had indeed been blocked at the Fos site since Monday evening for an expected 48-hour period, there was no impact on production. Deliveries from the Port Jerome site have also been affected since early morning, they added.
"Esso is doing everything to supply its customers and reduce the consequences of this national movement against the pension reform," the spokesperson said.
TotalEnergies' Gonfreville, Donges, Feyzin, La Mede and Carling sites were hit by the strike, a CGT representative said.
The company said there is no lack of fuel at service stations and stocks are at a high level, adding that teams had been mobilized to meet demand.
The TotalEnergies spokesperson said that out of 296 operators on its sites, 64% were on strike on Tuesday morning.
Eric Sellini, a CGT union representative at TotalEnergies told Reuters that the strike currently completely blocking the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy was expected to run until Thursday and the one at the Donges refinery in western France until Friday.
"The objective is to renew the strike everywhere," CGT representative Benjamin Tange said. The spokesperson for the Esso refineries also said that strikes could be repeated.