Teachers, doctors, Eiffel Tower employees and workers across the French labor force walked off the job Tuesday to resist a higher retirement age and to preserve a welfare system they fear their business-friendly president wants to dismantle.

Commuters and tourists faced a 13th straight day of traffic headaches as train drivers kept up their protest of changes to a system that allows them and other workers under special pension regimes to retire as early as their 50s. Parents faced shuttered schools and students had key exams canceled as teachers joined in the strike.

Hospitals requisitioned workers to ensure key services Tuesday, as nurses, doctors and pharmacists went on strike to save a once-vaunted public hospital system that's struggling after years of cost cuts.

Police in Paris barricaded the presidential Elysee Palace hours ahead of a new protest on Tuesday afternoon, bracing for potential violence by yellow vest activists or other radical demonstrators angry over economic injustice.

So far, his government is sticking to plans to raise the retirement age to 64, though it made concessions last week by delaying the roll-out of the change and opened the door for new negotiations.

Several European countries have raised the retirement age or cut pensions in recent years to keep up with lengthening life expectancy and slowing economic growth. Macron argues that France needs to do the same.

Source : VOA