Overview
- Union confederations called a coordinated public-sector strike and demonstrations to press for higher pay after a decade of frozen wages and declining purchasing power.
- The unions reported heavy turnout on Tuesday, September 29, with the CGT claiming more than 300,000 participants nationwide and 70,000 in Paris while local media recorded large regional rallies.
- Firefighters — who had been on strike since September 8 and set up a Camp de la Colère on the Champ-de-Mars — joined the marches in force and were reported by unions to number in the thousands in Paris.
- Students and lycéens expanded the action with contested counts of school blockades ranging from about 338 to more than 400 establishments and calls to reconduct local actions in coming days.
- Unions warn the mobilisation aims to shape the 2027 budget by spotlighting chronic staff shortages, rising work-related illness and the erosion of public services caused by frozen pay and budget cuts.