Striking French rail staff halted train services for the seventh day this month on Wednesday in protest over a major shake-up of the state-owned railway company, but President Emmanuel Macron said he would not be cowed into retreat.
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. Macron, confronted by protesters on a walkabout in eastern France, reiterated his determination to see the SNCF reformed.
