PARIS (AP) – The Eiffel Tower closed, many school kids across France had no classes and air traffic controllers were staying off work Thursday in a nationwide day of protests and strikes to air an array of grievances against the government.
Thousands of protesters, blowing whistles and waving union banners, were marching in Paris in support of the catch-all movement of private and public sector workers. The movement was likely to increase pressure on the already-unpopular Socialist government of President Francois Hollande.
The demonstrations and strikes in the protest-friendly country follow recent complaints by groups as diverse as doctors and notaries against recent government reforms, and on top of ongoing strikes by French air traffic controllers and workers at the state radio.
The air traffic controllers were holding the second half of a two-day strike, which led to the cancellation of half of flights in and out of France on Thursday. Their walkout, in part over plans to raise their maximum retirement age to 59, was expected to resume in each of the next two weeks. Many European carriers were avoiding French airspace.
Radio France, the state-backed broadcaster, was entering the third week of its walkout to protest budget cuts – and many of its employees were expected to be carrying banners at the Paris protest. The powerful CGT union was among those urging Radio France staffers to join in the march.