France Hit by Nationwide Strikes as Unions Fight Macron’s Pension Reform

France Hit by Nationwide Strikes as Unions Fight Macron’s Pension Reform
A passenger walks past a TGV Ouigo high speed train at Gare Montparnasse railway station during a strike by French SNCF workers in Paris as part of a nationwide day of strike and protests against French government's pension reform plan in France, on Jan. 19, 2023. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
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PARIS—More than a million people marched through French cities on Thursday to denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age, with a wave of nationwide strikes halting trains, blocking refineries, and curbing power generation.

Buoyed by their success, the country’s leading trade unions called for a second day of strikes on Jan. 31 in a bid to force Macron and his government to back down on a pension reform plan that would see most people work an extra two years to age 64.