Tens of thousands of French workers took to the streets on Thursday as unions mounted a one-day show of force against President Nicolas Sarkozy's government over pension reforms.
Major queues of trucks also built up at the Channel port of Calais because of a strike against dock privatization plans.
Rail workers led the national stoppage, with only half of trains running across France, as public sector workers join some 80 protest rallies planned across the country.
But expected rush-hour chaos was limited in Paris and other major cities, as the unions stuck to new rules on running a minimum service during strikes.
Unions hoped to draw half a million people into the streets, with six in 10 French people saying they support the movement, according to a poll in Liberation newspaper.
Between 40,000 protestors, according to police, and 150,000 according to unions turned for early protests in Nantes, Rouen and Le Havre in the west, Grenoble and Marseille the southeast and Clermont-Ferrand in the centre.
Factory workers and dockers angry at privatisation plans joined the marches in several cities including Marseille.
Walkouts were reported across the French public sector, with between 10 and 20 percent of postal, utilities and telecoms employees joining the strike, officials said.
And morning radio slots were replaced by music on public stations France Inter and Radio France Internationale.
France's five main unions are leading protests against plans to increase the number of years worked to draw a full pension, from 40 to 41, starting next year.
Written into a reform passed in 2003, the pension changes continue to raise hackles in union ranks.
"There are other financial solutions aside from asking workers to stay at work longer," said Bernard Thibault, head of France's biggest union, the CGT. "The government is going to have to change its line under pressure."
The head of the CFDT union, Francois Chereque, has accepted the reform in principle but says it should take into account the physical strain -- and the knock-on effect on life expectancy -- of various lines of work.
But Sarkozy's right wing government has vowed to stand firm.
"The question was settled in 2003," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on France 2 television Wednesday night.
Nationwide, half of all trains ran normally according to the state rail company SNCF, with high-speed Eurostar and Thalys services from Paris to London and Brussels operating as usual.
The Paris metro ran almost normally, but many suburban train lines ran at half-capacity, including the line linking the capital to the Charles de Gaulle international airport.
Air traffic was running normally from Paris Charles de Gaulle, with minor trouble reported at Paris Orly airport and provincial hubs including Marseille and Lyon in the southeast.
Thursday's strike comes hard on the heels of a two-week protest movement by fishermen who have blockaded oil depots, clashed with police and disrupted cross-Channel traffic in a two-week protest over rising fuel prices.
Fishermen's leaders called Wednesday for an end to the protests after the government promised to release this year 110 million euros (173 million dollars) from a promised 310 million euro package.
But many maintained their protests including at France's largest port of Marseille, where they had resumed a blockade of oil depots.
Cross-Channel ferry services from Calais to Dover -- hit by the fishermen's strike on Wednesday -- remained severely disrupted by a separate strike against port privatisation plans, officials said.
Regional traffic authorities said there was a 17 kilometer (10.5 mile) jam of lorries on the main highway into Calais caused by the strike.
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AFP
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