France faces massive national strike on Tuesday

PARIS

Workers in sectors such as transport, energy, education, waste collection, and agriculture plan to join French unions' call for an "inter-professional" strike this Tuesday.

As a result, not only will refinery workers and those at France's largest nuclear power plant Gravelines be on strike on Tuesday, but so will workers in other professions nationwide. Employees of French railroad SNCF announced their intention to join the strikes on Tuesday. The planned strikes are expected to cause "severe disruption" to train services, with up to "one in two trains" affected in some regions, Deputy Transport Minister Clément Beaune told France Inter TV on Monday.

Many teachers, students and other workers at secondary schools, high schools, and universities will also be absent on Tuesday. Sne-FSU, the largest union in secondary education, announced on its website that it will join the general strike across France sought by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) to demand a wage increase in the face of global inflation.

Mobilization is also underway in the healthcare and agricultural sectors. The health sector union CFDT-Santé also called on its website for some 200,000 workers in private clinics and nursing homes to strike "for negotiations on a new classification and dignified pay."

In a Monday press release, the farmers' union in the Pays-de-la-Loire region, Confederation paysanne de Maine-et-Loire, also called on its members to join the wage protests.