French strike pits workers vs. government as inflation bites

By NICOLAS GARRIGA and BOUBKAR BENZABAT
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of French workers have taken to the streets  across the country, striking for pay hikes that keep up with rising inflation. The strikes come after weeks of walkouts that hobbled oil refineries and sparked gasoline shortages. Rail and other transportation workers, trucking and bus companies, some high school teachers and public hospital employees have heeded a call by an oil workers’ union to push for salary increases and protest government intervention in the refinery strikes. Trains have been disrupted, including the high-speed Eurostar. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called on people on strike in the French oil refineries to “go back to work.”