Disruptive French Strikes

The nationwide protests, which are over issues ranging from pension reform to the cost of living, had disrupted hospitals, schools, trains, postal services and airports. They are seen as the biggest threat to Sarkozy's planned reforms since he was elected president in May. According to a new CSA survey, Sarkozy's approval rating has fallen five points this month alone, to 51 percent.

Asked if the transport strike, now in its eight day, could hurt the economy, Public Accounts Minister Eric Woerth said on Tuesday: "Not over several days. But if it lasted longer, it could obviously have consequences."

"When you decide not to work, when you prevent goods from circulating in a certain way, when you prevent people from getting to places, obviously that can be a problem at some point," Woerth told France Inter radio.

The rail workers oppose Sarkozy's plan to scrap some public sector pension rights. They voted to continue the strike they began on Nov. 13 so that it overlapped with Tuesday's one-day walk out by civil servants.

Opinion polls show the rail strike is unpopular with most French voters, but a majority sympathizes with the civil servants' strike.

One-day civil servant walk-out

The striking public-sector workers oppose Sarkozy's plan to cut 23,000 jobs in 2008 -- half of them in education -- by not replacing retiring civil servants. Some 58 percent of high-school teachers were participating in Tuesday's walk-out in Paris, a union official said.

Unions representing 5.2 million state employees -- around a quarter of the entire workforce -- also said their spending power had fallen by six percent since 2000 and were demanding pay rises.

France's postal service, La Poste, said about 15 percent of its mailmen and women were on strike, while meteorologists, bank workers and hospital staff were also among those downing tools.

International flights were cancelled and delayed as air traffic control staff at some airports went on strike. Paris' two airports reported average flight delays of around 40 minutes, and services at Marseille airport, in the country's south, have also been affected.

Tuesday's walkout is the third nationwide civil servants' strike this year.

The 24-hour strike coincided with student protests, which disrupted classes in half of the country's 85 universities in a campaign against a law giving faculties the right to raise money from private companies.

The French also awoke to find their newsstands empty of papers as distributors began a one-day strike over planned restructuring that is expected to lead to job losses. Striking energy workers cut 5,500 megawatts (MW), or about 8.7 percent of production capacity, at EDF nuclear plants earlier in the morning, the leading energy union said.

Public transport in disarray

State rail operator SNCF has said the number of people involved in the rail strike, which affected national trains as well as Paris subway and bus services, had fallen since it began last Tuesday, but public transport continued to be disrupted.

As many commuters changed from trains to cars, traffic jams stretched over more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) across France on Tuesday morning.

SNCF said about half its high-speed TGV trains would run on Tuesday and the Eurostar link with London would run normally.

Talks with rail unions were due to start on Wednesday. The government has dropped its demand that the strike end before the talks get underway and instead said there simply should be a "back-to-work dynamic."

The walk-out was over plans to increase contribution periods for the 500,000 workers -- mainly in the rail and energy sectors -- who enjoy "special" pension systems and can retire on full pensions as early as age 50.

And more strikes are expected: Tobacconists are due to shut up shop on Wednesday to protest against new anti-smoking laws, and French judges and lawyers have planned a strike on Nov. 29 to protest plans to cut the number of local tribunals.