Pension protests on October 2 & 12
Two more days of industrial action called, as unions and government publish contradictory figures on yesterday's turnout
UNIONS have called two further days of action against the government's proposed pension reforms, on October 2 and 12.
They met this morning to discuss their next move after yesterday's nationwide strike.
Demonstrations will be planned in towns and cities around France on the Saturday, October 2.
The unions want Tuesday, October 12, to be "a massive day of strike action".
The interior ministry claimed a lower turnout at yesterday's demonstrations compared with the strike day on September 7, with 997,000 people taking to the streets instead of 1.12 million.
However the CGT union’s estimate is more than three times that of the government. It believes that three million people marched, up from an estimated 2.7 million last time.
There were similar discrepancies at the other major demonstrations in Bordeaux, Lille, Nice, Rouen, Toulouse, Lyon and Strasbourg.
The biggest disagreement over figures was in Marseille, where police claimed 22,000 demonstrators and the CGT put forward a figure 10 times greater: 220,000.
Rail services are gradually returning to normal today. There is still some disruption on the Transilien network around Paris and a few local TER regions, as well as on Intercités trains on the Paris-Tours and Paris-Mulhouse lines.
