Travel from Belgium is set to be heavily affected by large-scale industrial action in France on Thursday, with rail services in particular set to operate at reduced capacity.
The strike takes place a week on from the ‘Bloquons tout’ (‘Let’s block everything’) movement, a grassroots campaign against proposed austerity measures. The movement was joined by several trade unions, causing disruption on the French rail network and the cancellation of a flight from Brussels Airport to Marseille on Wednesday evening.
This Thursday's action, organised separately from the 'Bloquons tout' movement, was called in August in reaction to then-Prime Minister François Bayrou's proposed cuts to the 2026 budget. While Bayrou has since resigned after being defeated in a no-confidence vote last week, with Sébastien Lecornu being appointed to replace him, most trade unions are going ahead with the strike.
Philippe Tabarot, the outgoing transport minister, told France Info that it was likely to be a "dark day" on transport networks, with strike action set to be "far greater" than what was seen last week. This is mainly because a greater number of trade unions have joined the call to industrial action, including the four main organisations for SNCF rail workers. Up to half a million workers across all sectors are expected to take part in Thursday's general strike, France Info has indicated.
The strike will notably affect the national rail network, as well as the Parisian public transport system. In a press conference on Tuesday evening, Tabarot indicated that nine out of ten high-speed TGV trains would be running, a figure which includes international services. Regional trains, however, will see more widespread cancellations, with only three in five services going ahead as scheduled.
The SNCF, which has listed the northern Hauts-de-France region among the affected areas on its network, will publish further updates on cancellations on its website starting from 17:00 on Wednesday afternoon.
"Some disruption is to be expected on TGV INOUI services between France and Europe as well as TGV Lyria and OUIGO trains, but all customers should be able to travel on the day", the French state's railway operator has indicated. The SNCF has also stated that customers due to travel on the above services will able to cancel or exchange their ticket free of charge.
An air traffic controllers’ strike, which was initially expected to take place on Thursday and Friday, has been postponed until the start of next month in the wake of the collapse of the French government. The main traffic controllers' union, the SNCTA, has given advance notice of a strike from Tuesday 7 October to Friday 10 October.
The main trade unions representing Air France employees, however, have called on their members to go ahead with the industrial action. While last week's strike mainly affected airports in the south of the country, Thursday's disruption is expected to impact flights to and from Paris as well. As of Wednesday morning, no flights from Brussels Airport have been cancelled.
Several other fields will also be affected by the general strike. The USPO, a federation of trade unions for pharmacists, has announced that 98% of pharmacies in France would be closed for the day. In the energy sector, EDF has announced that it has receive a strike notice starting from Thursday evening.
