PARIS, Jan 17 (AFP) - After a year of relative social calm, France is braced for prolonged disruption in public services this week as unions stage a succession of strikes against the cautious economic reform programme of President Jacques Chirac's government.

Widespread stoppages were being predicted starting on Tuesday in the post office, with the railway network, hospitals and the power utilities badly affected on Wednesday, and millions of teachers and other civil servants being called out on Thursday.

Organised behind a variety of demands, the strikes were being seen as a key test of government resilience - but also of the unions' capacity to mobilise once again after a long period of quiescence.

An opinion poll in Le Parisien newspaper Monday showed a majority of 65 percent of French people supporting the protest movement, with 75 percent saying they would themselves strike to "defend buying power" and 59 percent "to defend public services."

But Jean-Francois Cope - the centre-right government's spokesman and budget minister - said there would be no turning-back from policies that are intended to trim back the country's large public sector through a gradual process of liberalisation and limited job cuts.

"Everyone realises that if a certain number of decisions concerning reforms and modernisation are not taken, then it is the public service itself that will be the first victim," he said.

A high turn-out would provide momentum for a further day of action on February 5 called to oppose government plans to loosen the mandatory 35-hour week by giving private sector employers the right to have their workforce do longer hours.

Postal workers launch this week's protests as the right-dominated National Assembly debates a bill to open the state-owned company La Poste to competition in accordance with European Union directives. Unions also oppose a measure to create a banking subsidiary of La Poste which could be partially owned by private shareholders.

 1 2 Next >