(The following Associated Press article was distributed on June 11.)
PARIS — A French transport strike against pension reform slowed train, bus and subway services Wednesday, and a teachers’ union vowed to keep up its walkouts.
The disruptions, however, were less severe than on Tuesday, when strikers delayed flights, crippled train service and poured into the streets for clashes with riot police.
In Paris early Wednesday, some subway and train lines returned to normal while others suffered delays and partial service. In Marseille, only 8 percent of public buses were running.
A top teachers’ union accused the government Wednesday of failing to make concessions. The union — the SNES-FSU — is fighting both pension reform and a proposed overhaul of the education system.
“The strike will continue because the government has not moved enough,” Denis Paget, union secretary-general, said on RTL radio early Wednesday.
In Bordeaux on Wednesday, no buses were running and the mayor declared an emergency over the heaps of garbage left by sanitation workers, who have been on strike since June 3.
The walkouts on Tuesday hit as the center-right government began debate in Parliament on a plan to make workers put in more years on the job to qualify for full pension benefits.
The government says the plan is needed to compensate for France’s growing number of retirees, and has warned that the pension system will collapse without the changes.
Workers, however, say the plan is the first step in a process that would eventually gut the pension system.
The strikes Tuesday were an intensification of smaller walkouts over the past week. Transport workers joined garbage collectors and teachers, whose protest could disrupt end-of-year exams for high school seniors. Postal workers also took the day off.
The main air traffic controllers’ union stayed on the job. But there were delays and some smaller airports could not operate.
Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated through France. In Paris, protesters pounded on barriers and threw stones and bottles at police blocking them from the National Assembly. Police responded with tear gas.