‘Black Tuesday’ as France grapples with nationwide strikes

From taxi drivers to airport controllers and teachers, tens of thousands workers in France protested over working conditions and job losses.

French and European taxi drivers clash with riot police as they attempt to disrupt rush hour traffic on the ring-road around Paris, during a demonstration against Uber, the app-based transportation network and taxi company service in Paris, France on January 26, 2016. Christophe Petit Tesson/EPAShow less

Paris // Tempers flared in Paris as striking taxi drivers blocked key roads and set fire to tyres on a “Black Tuesday” which saw simultaneous strikes by air traffic controllers, civil servants, hospital workers and teachers.

Paris police fired tear gas and taxi drivers lit bonfires on a major highway amid nationwide strikes and protests over working conditions and competition from non-traditional services such as Uber.

Prime minister Manuel Valls agreed to an emergency meeting with taxi drivers, in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions.

The protests were the latest challenge to the Socialist government as it tries to modernise the economy and find France’s place in an increasingly globalised, online marketplace.

At Orly airport, one protester was injured in the leg when a shuttle bus forced its way through a blockade. Police said the bus driver was arrested.

Some 300 taxi drivers furious over competition from non-licensed private hire cabs also blocked the capital’s ring road at a key intersection in the west of the city, lighting fires and throwing smoke bombs.

“Today our survival is at stake, we are fed up of meetings and negotiations,” said Ibrahima Sylla, spokesman of the Taxis de France collective.

Nineteen protesters were arrested.

Adding to the airport chaos, one in five flights in and out of Orly as well as Paris’ main air hub, Charles de Gaulle, were cancelled because of a strike by air traffic controllers over pay and conditions.

Air France had said it would operate all of its long-haul flights and more than 80 per cent of its short- and medium-haul flights in France and elsewhere in Europe, but that “last-minute delays or cancellations cannot be ruled out”.

Budget airline EasyJet said it had cancelled 35 flights.

On the ground, police said 1,200 taxi drivers were protesting in various parts of Paris, while their colleagues also disrupted traffic in Toulouse, northern Lille and southern Marseille.

They are seeking compensation for business lost to taxi app company Uber and similar firms.

Meanwhile some 5.6 million civil servants have been called to down tools to protest against labour reforms proposed last September affecting pay and career advancement.

School teachers were striking on Tuesday for higher pay, with about a third – or 100,000 – expected to take part, according to their union, which predicts a stay-away rate of up to 45 per cent in Paris.

The striking unions – who led up to 120 demonstrations across France on what the daily Le Parisien dubbed “black Tuesday” – also claim they are protesting against job losses totalling some 150,000 since 2007 and say the hospital sector is especially in need of new jobs.

Travellers on Tuesday may also encounter roadblocks set up by a different set of protesters: farmers upset over falling prices.

The farmers’ unions are demanding that distributors and major food companies pay equitable prices for their produce and livestock.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press