The eight main union federations announced a new day of “strong mobilisation” against the plans on Thursday, March 23rd.

The announcement came just hours after Emmanuel Macron’s government decided to ram the highly controversial pension reform bill through parliament without a vote, using the power known as Article 49.3.

CGT spokesman Catherine Perret, speaking on behalf of the eight union federations, called for “local unions rallies” at the weekend, followed by another “big day of mobilisation” on March 23rd.

Precise details will be announced nearer the time, but it’s likely that Thursday will see major disruption.

Marches, strikes and no-confidence vote: How France reacted to Macron’s pension decision

Unions have been staging one-day strikes since the pension reform debates first started on January 31st that have disrupted services such as trains, city public transport and schools, although disruption has been less severe in the most recent actions.

Although most workers had opted for one-day strikes, some unions had called rolling strikes, including train drivers and waste collectors.

On Thursday the government used a rarely-used power known as requisition to force striking waste collectors in Paris back to work after 7,000 tonnes of uncollected garbage piled up on the city streets.

You can follow the latest strike announcements in our strike calendar HERE.