美国有线新闻 CNN 法国铁路局工人抗议政府改革计划 誓言罢工至6月底

AZUZ: From the Middle East, we're taking you to the European country of France, where a strike is causing severe disruptions in the nation's train services. France's state-owned rail company says about 87 percent of its high speed trains and 80 percent of its regional rail services were cancelled Tuesday. There were no trains operating to Switzerland, Spain or Italy.

This is a rolling strike. Workers plan to walk out two days a time for a total of 18 walkouts before the end of June. They're protesting changes to the country's labor 1 laws that were proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Making changes was one of his campaign promises. But while many French business leaders and economists 2 support his plans, many unions oppose them.

France's rail company is $56 billion in debt, according to the "Reuters" news agency. President Macron wants to turn it into a profit-making business. But employees are concerned that if that happens, they could lose job security, annual pay raises and the right to early retirement 3.

And union bosses say that making France's railways more competitive could mean higher ticket prices.

In previous standoffs between unions and French presidents, the unions have prevailed.

SUBTITLE 4: French rail workers have kicked off a three-month long strike.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Every time there's a strike here, I got the impression that people around the world are saying, why don't the French just stop whining 5 and get on with the work?

Reforming the economy here closely follows Newton's first law of motion, inertia 6. At the root of it, I think the French are very conservative in the classic sense. They view change with suspicion at best and hostility 7 at worst.

And there's the concept of Droits Acquis, acquired rights. It's a concept that is deeply ingrained in French society. It's the feeling that rights once acquired should never ever be abandoned.

Despite appearances to the contrary, French unions by the members are not all that strong.

SUBTITLE: Only around 11 percent of French workers are unionized. That's roughly the same as the U.S.

BITTERMANN: The difference between France and other countries, though, is that unionized workers are found in very critical areas, transportation, energy production and the like. If they decide to go on strike, it can cause a lot of pain very quickly.

BITTERMANN: There are dozens of other attitudes which can be changed from the longstanding mistrust between employers and employees, through the traditional belief that every gain for the boss is a loss for the workers. In fact, it's a kind of thing that rightly or wrongly can leave the impression that France is a difficult place to do business.