French workers went on strike today to protest against reforms to the pension system and the 35-hour working week in the latest of a series of challenges to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Powerful unions CGT and CFDT called for mass demonstrations against the government's plans to extend the number of years employees must work to get a full pension to 41 from 40, and to give companies more scope to by-pass the 35-hour week.
"Employers will be able to do almost anything they like unilaterally. The government is opening the way for total deregulation," said Francois Chereque, head of CFDT, in an interview on France Info radio.
Chereque predicted the demonstrations would be bigger than on the last major day of strikes, May 22nd, thanks to the participation of private as well as public sector workers.
Unions said 700,000 marched against pension reforms then, while police put the figure at 300,000.
Bernard Thibault, head of CGT, said he expected over a million people to take part in demonstrations in about 120 towns and cities across France on Tuesday.
Train traffic was disrupted early in the day on regional networks in the south while bus and tram services in several major cities including Nice were hit, according to radio reports. Long-distance trains were running normally.
The Paris metro was also operating normally but there were some disruptions on the regional RER network and commuter trains. The road traffic authority reported 166 km (103 miles) of traffic jams around Paris as commuters avoided the rail network.
Figures were expected later in the day on the proportion of employees taking part in the strike.