Strikes by French railway and port workers halved train services and prompted cancellation of ferry links to Britain on Wednesday as labour unions sought to force President Francois Hollande's government into retreat on labour law reforms. After weeks of protests in which hundreds of their number have been hurt, police held a rally of their own to vent frustration over the stresses of near daily clashes with violent youths on the fringes of the anti-reform movement.
As they did so, a crowd chanting "police everywhere, justice nowhere" surrounded a police patrol car, which went up in flames after the police officers inside fled the scene, a few hundred metres from where their colleagues were rallying. The public prosecutor's office said after the incident it was opening an inquiry into attempted homicide. Wednesday's rail strikes, set to run until Friday morning, reduced high-speed and inter-city services by 40 to 50 percent, also heavily disrupting local and suburban commuter lines, the SNCF state railway company said.
Strike turnout, the SNCF said, was about 15 percent, lower than in previous stoppages. Brittany Ferries announced mass cancellations of connections between Britain and northern France, where port workers joined the industrial action. Truckers maintained blockades set up on Tuesday in a bid to strangle deliveries in and out of fuel and food distribution depots.
At issue is one of Hollande's flagship reforms a year from a presidential election - law changes designed to make it easier for employers to hire and fire staff and to opt out of cumbersome national rules in favour of in-house accords on pay. Hollande says the change will encourage firms to recruit and combat an unemployment rate that has remained above 10 percent.