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Paris • Striking workers created blackouts by cutting power to a big electricity line in western France and occupied train tracks at a Paris railway hub Thursday, as union members staged protests around the country to protest the proposed abolition of some French labor protections.
Strikes on the national rail service and at most French nuclear plants added to troubles for travelers and residents suffering from floods after days of unusually heavy rains.
Workers have sector-specific demands, but are also tapping into months of widespread anger at a government bill extending the 35-hour workweek and making it easier to hire and fire workers.
Some unions are threatening to keep up labor action through the start of Europe's top sporting event next week, the European Championship soccer tournament.
Members of the CGT union at 16 of France's 19 nuclear plants, which provide the majority of the country's electricity, voted for a one-day strike Thursday.
Nuclear plants are required to maintain a minimal level of production even during strikes for security reasons. But workers in Brittany cut the electricity supply from a power station in Saint-Malo-de-Guersac, prompting blackouts in some 125,000 homes, according to the RTE electricity network.
Service was restored to most homes by early afternoon, RTE said in a statement, adding that it "deplores and condemns these actions, contrary to its mission of public service."
Protesters also briefly walked onto train tracks at the Gare de Lyon station in eastern Paris, delaying traffic, and union members marched through Paris on Thursday afternoon.
"Let's continue the fight!" read one banner.
Railway worker Henri Gillard accused President Francois Hollande of abandoning his leftist base with a law that unions see as too friendly to big business. "They have betrayed the socialist voters," he told The Associated Press.
Workers at the SNCF national rail service have been on strike since Tuesday night, but one union voted Thursday to return to work.
"This is the eighth or ninth strike in the last three months," complained French passenger Jean-Jacques Aibart. "That is nearly one strike every week or ten days. For employees paid by the state, who have secure jobs and a pension, that is quite too much."
Some Paris public transport workers also joined the strike, although disruptions on subways and buses were minimal.
The government is hoping support for the strikes diminishes as they wear on.
The junior transport minister said Thursday the government reached agreement in negotiations with air traffic controllers angry over job cuts, and they dropped a threat to go on strike starting Friday.
However, Air France pilots' unions are threatening a strike June 11-14 and possibly beyond, France-Info radio reported.
The European Championship runs June 10-July 10.