Electricity workers in France cut power to thousands in Paris and stopped trains at one of the city’s airports as part of their continued strike.
The workers pulled the stunt on Tuesday as protesters demand the government back off plans to reform power grid workers’ pension system, according to the Associated Press. The outage lasted two hours and hit one of the most economically productive districts in Paris, including Orly Airport and Rungis Market.
The protests, led by the General Confederation of Labour union, have rocked the French electrical and transportation sectors for six weeks.
The power company Enedis estimated that the outage affected 35,000 customers. Management at Orly provided buses to shuttle travelers around while the trains were down. The trains’ operator condemned the deliberate power cut as an “act of malice.”
CGT union local leader Franck Jouanno said the stunt accomplished its goal, claiming: “It’s symbolic. It made a buzz, and that’s what everyone wants.”
Jouanno said he regretted the “collateral damage” of cutting off power to tens of thousands of working Parisians, “but unfortunately, there is always an impact, and a power cut isn’t the end of the world.”
In the second week of the strike in December, union leaders and protesting workers cut power to the Bank of France and thousands of other homes and businesses.
“I understand these workers’ anger,” CGT union head Philippe Martinez said at the time. “These are targeted cuts. You’ll understand that spitting on the public service can make some of us angry.”
Martinez had also warned that if French President Emmanuel Macron and the French government did not solve the pension fight, “we may amplify these kinds of methods.”
