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 The third strike in two months halved high-speed train services
and cut other intercity rail journeys to as few as one in three,
although international Eurostar and Thalys connections appeared
largely unaffected by the 24-hour stoppage.
At issue is a fundamental rewrite of working conditions that
management at the SNCF state railway company hopes will enable it to
cope when EU-wide legislation throws national passenger services
open to competition in 2020.
"For the moment this is just a massive warning strike," said
Philippe Martinez, head of the large, hardline CGT union.
With the exception of Britain, which entirely privatized its
railways in the 1990s, most EU countries have limited deregulation
to the pace set by common accord at European Union level, starting
with freight in 2006 and a few cross-border links thereafter.
 In France, where the TGV high-speed network is the world's
second-biggest after Japan, the stakes are particularly high. A
staff of around 150,000 is often singled out as enjoying enviable
job and pension rights under decades of monopoly status.
Despite predictable resistance from more militant unions such as the
CGT and Sud-rail, however, the latest stoppage is also being backed
by unions like the more conciliatory CFDT on the grounds that
low-cost competition should not set the standard.
"The CFDT will never put its name to a regression in work and
transport safety standards," the CFDT union said in a statement
explaining why it was joining Tuesday's strike call.
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The CFDT and other unions are angry over a proposal seeking to scale
back myriad guarantees that would, for example, align the number of
work-free weekends per year with the lower level private operators
accord their staff.
The proposal -- a first draft on which an agreement is being sought
by July -- is part of a broader package that is set to establish a
standard across the rail passenger sector when it is opened up to
full-on competition, firstly on high-speed lines in 2020 and more
broadly in 2026.
Beyond the chaos caused for commuters heading into large urban
centers such as Paris, local media highlighted that the impact of
the train strike was mitigated by people traveling by coach.
This form of transport has mushroomed in France as a low-cost
alternative since the Socialist government liberalized that business
last year.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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