Euro 2016: Strikes won't hamper games
June 10, 2016
The head of France's powerful CGT union on Friday said striking transport workers will not block football fans from reaching the first game of the European Championship football competition.
"All the supporters will be able to reach the Stade de France stadium this evening," CGT union leader Philippe Martinez told French daily Le Parisien.
"There are no instructions to disrupt actions at stadiums, or to disrupt matches," Martinez added.
Twelve days of union-led labor strikes across the country have led to regional and high-speed train cancellations around Paris ahead of the first Euro 2016 match on Friday.
'A bit optimistic'
Garbage cluttered the nation's capital as CGT public workers stopped collecting waste on the streets of Paris.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo vowed to clean the city ahead of the first match, saying dozens of extra garbage trucks have been brought into the city to deal with the mess.
"All the garbage will be collected today," Hidalgo told BFM television on Friday.
However, CGT public workers union leader Baptiste Talbot said Hidalgo's cleanup plan was "a bit optimistic."
"We want to maintain pressure with the strike, but we are sensitive to sanitary issues," Talbot told AP news agency.
Meanwhile, France's state-owned railway company SNCF said only 7.1 percent of public transport workers participated in strikes on Friday.
Unions launched the strikes in protest of proposed legislation to lengthen France's work week and make it easier for employers to terminate employees.
ls/kms (AP, AFP)