Officials have said they are ready to negotiate, with Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer meeting teachers' representatives on Friday to try to stave off another day of class shutdowns.
"It was an intense and frank meeting... but we still need details, and maintain our call to strike on Tuesday," Stephane Crochet of the SE-Unsa teachers' union said.
Unions are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when they forced a rightwing government to back down on pension reforms after three weeks of metro and rail strikes just before Christmas.
The prospect of a protracted standoff has businesses fearing big losses during the crucial year-end festivities, and travellers worried that their holiday plans are compromised.
"Right now it's a catastrophe here, but we're hoping there will be a solution before Christmas," Frederic Masse, a foie gras producer at the sprawling Rungis wholesale food market south of Paris, told AFP on Friday.
The capital city was again choked by huge traffic jams as most metro lines remained shut, only a handful of buses and trams were running, and three in four TGV trains were cancelled.
Officials warned Friday of similar disruptions through the weekend, with train operator SNCF saying that on Tuesday it will start warning ticket holders of their chances of travel during the Christmas break that begins next Saturday.
"I'm sick of this, and I won't be able to keep working if it goes on," Zigo Makango, a 57-year-old security agent, told AFP onboard a bus in the Bobigny suburb northeast of Paris.
To get home at night Makango said he has to use taxis, but "my boss doesn't reimburse me for that".
- 'Historic reform' -
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday expressed his "solidarity" with people impacted by the strike, "but I want the government to continue its work" in forging a single pension system, a key campaign promise.
"It's a historic reform for the country... for a welfare state of the 21st century," he told journalists at an EU summit in Brussels. Read More
No comments