The rolling strikes, due to continue until the end of June, entered a more testing phase for unions at the SNCF rail company a day after the lower house of parliament approved the bill they are fighting, which will end the SNCF monopoly.
SNCF management said about one in five staff (19.84 percent) did not work, slightly down from a 22.5 percent strike rate on April 12 and more noticeably down on a strike rate of close to 30 percent when industrial action began on April 3.
All four major unions are contesting a reform that is the biggest since nationalisation of the railways in 1937 and seen as a test of Macron’s determination to pursue a broader raft of economic and social reforms during a term that runs to 2022.
Around one in three high-speed TGV trains were running and two in five regional trains on Wednesday, while international services were down to about 75 percent of normal.
That was a slightly lower impact than at the outset of the strikes but not to a degree that suggested Tuesday’s resounding pro-reform vote in the National Assembly had broken the back of the strike.
The Communist-rooted CGT union sought to raise the heat on Macron with a strike call at the Paris subway transport company, RATP, which is not targeted by the national railway reforms.
CGT boss Philippe Martinez said no-show estimates were a bit lower than in early April but in no way suggested resistance was flagging.
Hallmarks of the reform include a gradual phase-out of the SNCF’s passenger rail monopoly, starting with competition on high-speed lines in 2020, and an end to hiring of SNCF staff on more protective contracts than in other sectors.
Unions fear that Macron's reforms will open the door to privatisation, as happened after similar changes at France Telecom, now called Orange.
The SNCF bill will now go to the Senate and the process of parliamentary approval is expected to conclude by early July.
