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Paris: A strike by French rail workers caused minor disruption to train traffic on Tuesday but failed to paralyse the network, a relief for the government after a series of much bigger protests over its reform plans in May.
Three labour unions had called on railway workers to go on strike over plans by state-owned train company SNCF to re-organise the way it handles freight, but most trains were running as only part of the SNCF workforce took action.
A new law on "minimum service" in public transport, designed to ensure that trains run on the busiest lines even on strike days, came into force on Jan. 1 and the government said the relatively smooth operations on Tuesday were proof it worked.
"A real change today is that there are strikes in the transport sector but the country isn't paralysed," Welfare Minister Xavier Bertrand said on France Inter radio.
"People can go to work, come back in the evening and even if there's some disruption minimum service today has become a reality," he said.
Minimum service on strike days was a campaign pledge by President Nicolas Sarkozy and he has said he would extend it to education. Teachers have staged repeated strikes this year over government plans to cut 11,200 education jobs this year.
Under the new transport law, rail workers who plan to go on strike have to inform management at least two days before to allow time to re-assign those who do not plan to strike to the most important train lines.
Unions were also calling on public sector workers to go on strike on Tuesday over government plans to cut 23,000 jobs this year and over a new law that would make it easier for public sector employers to re-assign staff to new jobs and locations.
Demonstrations over the issues were planned in several cities later in the day and figures were expected on the proportion of public sector workers who took part in the strike.
The planned job cuts were one of the reasons for a series of strikes and demonstrations last month, along with a government reform of the pension system that would require employees to work for 41 years instead of 40 to get a full state pension.
An opinion poll published in Liberation newspaper suggested the issues cited as reasons for Tuesday's strike calls were not top preoccupations for most French people, who were a lot more worried about low purchasing power and high fuel prices.
The unions have called for another day of strikes on June 17, this time focused on government plans to change the 35-hour work week to make it easier for employees to work more.
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