PARIS (AP) — Taxi drivers across France clogged traffic, slowed access to airports and forced would-be passengers to find alternate transport as they held a strike Thursday over government deregulation proposals they fear will cut into their business.

Thousands of protesting taxi drivers lined up in single file on roadsides across the country, refused fares or traveled highways at a crawl. At one point in the late morning, a trip into Paris that would normally take 20 minutes was listed on traffic signs at more than two hours. The drivers called it “Operation Escargot.”