Thursday, November 10th, marks the third ‘inter-professional’ strike day in France but while the previous two saw minimal disruption, this one has won the backing of workers on Paris’ public transport network RATP.
The operator has warned that Metro and RER suburban trains services will be ‘very heavily disrupted’, while bus and tram services will be ‘disrupted’.
RATP on Wednesday produced a strike timetable detailing the disruption, but the overall advice remains “change your travel plans and work from home if possible”.
Metro lines 2, 3bis 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12 will be closed completely on Thursday.
Lines 3, 4, 6, 7, 7bis, 9 and 13 will operate only during rush hours – 7am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 7.30pm – and will run limited services during these times.
Lines 1 and 14, which are automated, will run as normal but are likely to be extremely busy.
On the RER, line A will run 1 in 3 of its normal services and will stop at 9pm, while line B – which connects Paris to its two airports – will run normal hours but with only half or 1 in 3 of its normal services. The other RER lines are run by SNCF, which is not expecting any disruption.
On the buses some lines will be heavily disrupted while trams will run mostly as normal except for line 5 which will only have services between 5.30am and 10.30am, and 3.30pm and 8.30pm. Line 2 will run fewer services than normal.
#greve10novembre Ce jeudi, évitez le métro et le RER
➡️ https://t.co/2aNhbdJveh pic.twitter.com/zcIxpq0LGA— Le Parisien | transports (@transportsidf) November 9, 2022
READ ALSO 6 ways to get around Paris without public transport
SNCF is not expecting major disruption on rail journeys across France.
The inter-professional strike days were called by the hardline CGT union in response to the rising cost of living. They have not attracted the widespread support of other unions, meaning disruption has until now been kept to a minimum.
Unions have staged strikes across several sectors in recent weeks seeking pay hikes or increased hiring as spiralling energy costs feed into widespread inflation.
Union leaders are also hoping to step up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron as he prepares to revive a controversial pensions overhaul that would push back the official retirement age to 64 or 65, from 62 currently.
A similar attempt sparked massive protests two years ago, before the government abandoned the overhaul amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Former prime minister Jean Castex, who is set to take over as RATP chief in the coming weeks, will face questioning from lawmakers in the Senate and the lower-house National Assembly this week.
We will update this story with further information on Wednesday.
Can you please stop calling the CGT union “hardline” or hard left”. You’ve been doing it for weeks now. It’s just a normal union, as in every country in the world, defending its members. Your personal political opinions are unsuitable for an information site like this one.