STRIKERS disrupted high speed Eurostar train services between Paris, London and Brussels yesterday as tens of thousands of workers demonstrated across France for shorter working hours to cut unemployment.
Rail workers invaded the tracks at the Gare du Nord station in Paris as part of a day of action called by the pro socialist CFDT trade union.
High speed TGV trains arriving from London, Brussels and Lille halted either at Saint Denis or Roissy airport, north of Paris, where passengers transferred to suburban trains, the state owned railway company SNCF said. Eurostar trains departed northwards from the same stations.
Commuter train services from the Gare du Nord were also affected by a ticket collectors' strike, the SNCF said, with only one train in four running.
In south west France, a strike by train engineers demanding better working conditions and more staff disrupted traffic in the region. The station at Toulouse was completely paralysed after engineers occupied a signal box on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, demonstrations took place in Paris and many provincial cities.
The day of action was seen as a test of public sector militancy, at a time when private sector militancy is at a low ebb, against the French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, and his economy drive in the 1997 budget to have France qualify for European monetary union in 1999.
The CFDT, which is spearheading the movement, is seeking a substantial cut in the working week from 39 hours to 32.
Mr Juppe said he understood trade union "impatience" and called for a speed up in negotiations between unions and employers on work sharing in a nation where three million people, or 12 per cent of the active population, are unemployed.
In Paris, between 10,000 to 12,000 demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the French employers' organisation CNPF behind a banner demanding a massive reduction in working hours".
The demonstrations were also linked to plans for job shedding in major French industries including Air France Europe, the former domestic airline Air Inter and GIAT Industries, makers of the Leclerc tank.