Paris education strike returns on November 10 as students and teachers take to the streets; prime minister meets unions on Monday first

France's education sector has called a national strike for Tuesday, November 10, with teachers, high school and university students and researchers set to march in Paris and across the Île-de-France region to demand better education funding and living conditions. It follows a fourth consecutive Saturday of cost-of-living protests; on Saturday, November 7, about 146,000 people demonstrated nationwide, including 46,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. (Photo: file photo of a student protest in Paris.)

Fifteen organisations behind the call; schools across Paris districts may be affected

The November 10 strike was called by fifteen organisations, including the Snes-FSU, the leading union for middle and high school teachers, which took up the call on Saturday, November 7, along with student organisations and researchers' groups. Schools, collèges, lycées and universities in Paris and in the Créteil and Versailles education districts could be affected. As of Sunday morning, November 8, no route had been made public for the November 10 demonstration in Paris, either by the organisers or by the Paris police headquarters.

Prime minister's social conference comes first on Monday; no transport strike called for Tuesday

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will bring together unions and employers at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, November 9, at Matignon for a social conference on wages and purchasing power; the CGT union and the education sector have already announced their next steps. So far, neither the Paris transport operator RATP nor the national rail company SNCF has called a strike for Tuesday.

Protests in their fourth week; turnout falling

The cost-of-living protests have now run for four consecutive Saturdays. The Interior Ministry said about 146,000 people took part on November 7, down from 320,000 on October 31, 410,000 on October 24 and 550,000 on October 17; unions put the nationwide figure at 250,000, with 75,000 in Paris. Authorities deployed about 70,000 police officers across France on November 7 and made about 360 arrests.

(Sources: AFP; Sortiraparis; Le Parisien; French Interior Ministry.)