Strikes in France in August 2025 and how you may be impacted

Strikes across several sectors are expected in France this August, including in pharmacies and on the national rail network. 

This comes as France’s third-largest union has called for a national strike to begin in September and run for three months.

There are also calls for a public ‘mobilisation’ in protest to the 2026 budget, also scheduled to begin in September. 

The Connexion will update this article if any further strike action is announced to take place in August. 

Pharmacy staff - ongoing 

Strikes in the pharmacy sector have been ongoing since the end of June. 

Initial action by emergency and night-time pharmacists was later enlarged to a wider strike in the sector. 

Several unions are supporting the action, which may make it harder to find an open pharmacy. 

There is no scheduled end-date for the strike which has also seen unions threaten to block roads and affect medicine shipments. 

Rail workers - until September 1 

A summer of strike action was called across France’s rail network, although disruptions have been relatively minor so far. 

A change in strategy saw the SUD-Rail union switch from concentrated action over one or two days – as seen in May and the start of June – to a wider strike period covering mid June-September. 

The union hopes that small-scale local walkouts with short notice will be more disruptive to the network, after major national action in May and June was largely countered by state-rail operator SNCF having time to prepare and find replacement staff and volunteers. 

It means disruption is hard to predict, both in terms of location and scale, however so far it has been relatively minor and few problems have been highlighted. 

Regional (TER) services are perhaps more likely to be impacted, as strikes on these networks only require local as opposed to national co-ordination between workers. 

Teachers and school staff: August 18 to October 18 

Strike action across the education sector has been called due to ongoing complaints over working conditions, a decrease in the quality of education in France, and the proposals of the 2026 budget. 

It covers teachers of age groups from primary schools to universities, meaning disruption could be widespread across the whole education sector.

The 2025-2026 school year does not begin until September 1, but strike action in advance may disrupt preliminary back-to-school organisation. 

October 18 is the end of the first school term. 

Teachers at primary school need to announce their intention to strike several days beforehand meaning parents will be aware of closures in advance. 

At higher levels however this is not always the case.