Trade unions call for more strikes over Macron's pension reform

French high school students block the access to the Lycee Turgot in Paris during a nationwide day of strike and protests against French government's pension reform plan in France, January 19, 2023. The placards read "No planet, no pension" and "Police everywhere, pension nowhere". REUTERS/Lucien Libert

PARIS (Reuters) -More than a million people marched through French cities on Thursday to denounce President Emmanuel Macron's plans to raise the retirement age, with a wave of nationwide strikes halting trains, blocking refineries and curbing power generation.

Buoyed by their success, the country's leading trade unions called for a second day of strikes on Jan. 31 in a bid to force Macron and his government to back down on a pension reform plan that would see most people work an extra two years to age 64.