Paris: France's government, scrambling to end a wave of protests that could disrupt the Euro 2016 soccer championship, called on Friday for an end to a rail strike and told pilots their plans to stop work were 'irresponsible'.
The calls came as an open-ended national stoppage on the railways entered its third day, reducing train services by about half, a week before the June 10 opening of the soccer tournament which should draw some 2.5 million fans, many from abroad.
The disruption was compounded by the worst flooding in at least 30 years as the Seine river broke its banks in the centre of Paris, forcing closure of a commuter train line and a halt to barge transport on top of massive traffic jams on flooded motorways.
But there was little disruption to the Paris underground train network despite a strike call by the CGT union, and the SNCF rail company said that the number of staff who stopped work on Friday fell to 10 percent, down from 17 percent on Wednesday.
Transport minister Alain Vidalies said that the government had satisfied union demands to protect rest periods for rail workers and help with the 50 billion-euro ($56 billion) debt of SNCF, saying the CGT should call off its action.
"It's time to acknowledge the progress that's been made and to get back to work," the minister told RTL radio.
The Socialist government has intervened in internal talks on reorganisation of the SNCF, and made concessions to avert an air traffic controllers' strike. But it faces a walkout by pilots at flag carrier Air France next week.
"This is irresponsible," the minister said, adding that nobody would understand why a stoppage over planned pay curbs was timed to start one day into the month-long soccer festival.
Two unions representing the bulk of Air France pilots have given notice of a strike from June 11 to 14 and said that they might schedule further stoppages.
LABOUR LAW REFORM
The CGT is also spearheading strikes at refineries and nuclear power stations in a bid to force the government to withdraw a reform of labour laws that would make hiring and firing easier.
The core protest overlaps with difficult negotiations to prepare the SNCF for Europe-wide liberalisation of train traffic in 2020 and, at Air France, efforts to reduce costs.
The CGT and smaller labour and student unions which have been protesting since March against the labour law reform said that they had proposals to make and wanted president Francois Hollande to meet them.
Petrol station shortages have eased after police forcibly removed pickets from fuel depots. But the CGT said that another protest had shut down several large waste treatment facilities around Paris, raising the threat of rubbish buildups.
Prime minister Manuel Valls has said that the CGT was waging an increasingly lonely war now that most other unions had dropped grievances.
"If we gave into the CGT, a union which is in the minority even if I respect its history and struggle, it would no longer be possible to reform France," he told l'Est Republicain.
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