Factbox: Where is France's pension reform strike being felt the hardest?
original event

PARIS (Reuters) - French trade unions disrupted rail services, cut power generation and brought tens of thousands of demonstrators onto the streets on Thursday in a make-or-break push to force President Emmanuel Macron to abandon his planned pension reform.

Workers on strike hold CGT labour union placards as they attend a demonstration in Paris during the 36th consecutive day of strike against French government's pensions reform plans in France, January 9, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Here’s how the strike is affecting France:

Power generation was down nearly 7 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday, according to the power company EDF and power grid RTE. Current available power generation capacity is at 75.2 GW.

Output was reduced at several nuclear, gas-fired and coal-fired plants. EDF said 12% of its French workforce were on strike, compared to 36.5% on the first day of the protests on Dec. 5.

Total said fewer than 5% of staff at its five refineries had walked out.

Its Normandy, Donges, Grandpuits, La Mede and Feyzin refineries were operating normally, storing output as they await the end of picketing at their gates, the group said.

Total said 54 of its 3,500 petrol stations had run dry of fuel on Thursday.

The strikes have hit transport networks the hardest.

State railway operator SNCF said a third of all railway workers were on strike, while the figure among train drivers was two thirds. Figures showed that the strike observance was lower than on Dec. 5.

Only three in every five high-speed intercity TGV services were running, and four in every 10 commuter services in the Paris region, according to SNCF. The company urged travelers to find alternative transport.

The Paris urban transport network reported severe delays on all its tram, bus and metro routes, according to state-owned operator RATP. None of the capital’s 16 metro lines was running normally.

Eurostar said it was running a reduced timetable on its train services linking Paris and London.

Air France said it was operating more than 90% of domestic flights and all long- and medium-haul operations.

France’s civil aviation authority instructed airlines to reduce their flight schedule by 33% on Thursday to and from Toulouse airport in the south.

The education ministry said 18.8% of primary school teachers in state schools were on strike, and 16.5% of secondary school teachers - lower again than on Dec. 5.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris was closed on Thursday as its employees went on strike. The Palace of Versailles and the Louvre Museum, home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, remained open.

Compiled by Matthieu Protard and Bate Felix; editing by Nick Macfie

Please visit original link if the content is unavailable. This page is rendered by Context crawler for better reading experience, the content is intact.