Picardy protests and strike disruptions on Thursday, November 5, Digi Mart USA News (Picardy, France): An intersyndical call for a general strike has been issued across France for Thursday, November 5. In Picardy, about a dozen demonstrations have been declared, and disruptions to public and private services are expected.
According to organizers and prefectures, the strike is expected to be widely followed following student and anti-high-cost-of-living mobilizations that have weakened in Picardy since the start of the school year. Teachers, railway workers, public service employees and private sector workers are expected to be affected in many sectors.
The SNCF has announced that one regional TER train in two will run in Picardy on Thursday. Schools, middle schools and high schools are also expected to close, and in Amiens (Somme), many after-school childcare services and canteens will remain closed.
Some daycare centers will operate at reduced capacity, while others will not open at all, and minimum reception services will be put in place.
Waste collection could also be delayed, modified or canceled in some intercommunal areas. The Baie de Somme agglomeration community has warned residents that no catch-up collection will be organized.
In Beauvais (Oise), residents of the city center have been asked not to put out bins or garbage bags on Thursday.
Demonstrations are planned in most of Picardy’s major cities and in some medium-sized towns, as mapped by the source. These are demonstrations declared by unions, and the map does not include independent calls to gather.
The Somme prefecture has banned all other static or mobile demonstrations in Amiens apart from the declared one, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the wearing of protective equipment is also prohibited.
In Amiens, the largest city in Picardy, 250 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed alongside municipal police, with patrols from the morning and random preventive checks near the station and city center.
