PARIS (Reuters) - French rail workers launched a 24-hour strike on Monday to demand pay rises and job security, the first and main event in a day of labour action planned by unions on Tuesday to maintain pressure on the government.
Tuesday's protests are expected to cause minor disruption to transport, education and other public services but are not intended to bring millions out into the streets, as on three previous national days of action this year.
The unions accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy of not doing enough to save jobs and defend wages. They have failed to convince Sarkozy to meet demands such as a rise in the legal minimum wage, despite repeated mass demonstrations.
"The government and the employers would be wrong to ignore workers and treat them with contempt at a time when they are hard-hit by the crisis, unemployment, mass layoffs and the erosion of public services," the unions said in a statement.
The protest movement comes at a time when separate disputes involving universities, hospitals, milk producers and some private companies that have announced mass layoffs have been rumbling for months.
In March and April, anger over layoffs at some foreign-owned factories boiled over into a spate of "bossnappings" during which workers detained managers on the premises overnight.
Fears rose that the different strands of protest could meld into a mass movement capable of paralysing France as in May 1968, and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin warned of a "risk of revolution," but that has not materialised.
The eight labour union federations have been straining to remain united in their protest plans, hoping that by acting together they can bend the government to their will, but there are disagreements on how best to mobilise workers.
Some of the more hawkish unions are pressing for frequent strikes to build on the momentum of the ongoing disputes, while more moderate unions are wary of protest fatigue.
Tuesday's action, billed as a "day of decentralised mobilisation," is a compromise plan involving walkouts and demonstrations at specific companies but no mass marches bringing together workers from different sectors.
State railway firm SNCF has announced that a quarter of high-speed TGV trains and half of regional trains will not run. Minor disruption is expected on the Paris metro.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
