Thousands of public sector staff have gone on strike over President Emmanuel Macron’s latest reform drive, reports The Guardian. The strikes have caused railway and airport disruption with many of their services cancelled across France. Today’s strikes also mark the first protest against Macron that has brought together civil servants and railway staff. France’s public sector, which has 5.4 million state workers, has seen unions accusing Macron of seeking to dismantle the state sector. Public sector staff believe Macron seeks to slash budgets, rely more on contract workers, introduce merit-based pay and voluntary redundancies to cut the number of public workers by 120,000 over five years. Meanwhile railway staff protesting against Macron’s plans to push through sweeping reforms to France’s state rail system, including cutting costs by limiting special employment rights for rail-workers.