FRENCH trade unions will be marching against President Emmanuel Macron’s cuts and privatisation programmes tomorrow.

But unions will not be marching together, despite calls by the militant CGT union for a “convergence of struggles.”

A “unitary meeting in support of the social struggle” held tonight was addressed by the Socialist Party’s Benoit Hamon, the Communist Party’s (PCF) Pierre Laurent and Olivier Besancenot of the New Anti-Capitalist Party.

They were joined by railway workers, hospital staff, postal workers, care workers, staff from supermarket giant Carrefour and students as the PCF called on the movement to give Macron “a day from hell.”

CGT secretary-general Philippe Martinez called on April 15 for all trade unions to come together in a “common front” against Mr Macron.

“While there is unity among rail workers, civil servants, at Air France, at Carrefour, why do we not give a sign to say ‘we support these mobilisations’ [and] point to some clear demands on questions like wages, employment?” he asked.

But the less radical CFDT, which, like CGT, has rail workers involved in a months-long programme of rolling strikes, has declined a joint march.

General secretary Laurent Berger has voiced his disagreement with the CGT “political” approach to the strike and said he was following what he termed a “trade union approach” instead.

Mr Laurent acknowledged today that May Day would see separate marches but called for a national mobilisation in May or June when “everyone can converge” against the government.

He also called for a “popular referendum” in defence of public services.

Mr Macron has prompted walkouts by civil servants, teachers and hospital staff by attacks on labour rights and job security which he imposed by decree, avoiding parliamentary scrutiny.

And three months of railway strikes are continuing as a result of his bid to open up France’s publicly run network to competitive tendering to meet the requirements of the EU Fourth Railway Package.

The president says he has an electoral mandate for the reforms, though he won less than a quarter of the vote in the first round of the presidential election last year and more than a third of voters opted to stay at home rather than back either him or fascist Marine Le Pen in the second round.