PARIS — Taxi drivers and air traffic controllers in France went on separate but simultaneous strikes Tuesday, blocking traffic in major cities and disrupting flights at several airports.
The strikes were part of a wider day of protests in the public sector, including hospitals and schools, to call attention to staff reductions, low salaries and education overhauls. More than 100 demonstrations were planned around the country.
The police in Paris said that about 1,500 taxis had blocked or delayed traffic around Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, as well as Porte Maillot, a major intersection in western Paris, and near the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Some taxi drivers set fire to tires and tried to block the highway that circles the French capital, but the police pushed the demonstrators back with tear gas.
Twenty people were arrested, including the driver of an airport shuttle who had tried to force his way through a taxi roadblock near Orly Airport, injuring two people, the French news media reported.
Hundreds of taxi drivers also blocked traffic around airports and train stations in Lille and Toulouse on Tuesday, and they paralyzed traffic in central Marseille.
Taxi unions called the strike to protest ride-booking companies like Uber, which allow people to summon drivers through a smartphone app.
Taxi drivers argue that ride-booking companies do not respect certain regulations — like a ban on cruising for fares, which only taxis can legally do — and they say that drivers for ride-booking services have an unfair advantage because they do not have to pay for expensive taxi licenses.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls held an emergency meeting with taxi union representatives, the interior minister and representatives from the Transportation Ministry on Tuesday.
Valls’ office said in a statement after the meeting that the government would increase enforcement of the 2014 law that regulates the activity of ride-booking companies, to “put an end to unfair behavior and guarantee the conditions of loyal competition.”
The statement said that Valls was ready to consult industry and government representatives “on the economic equilibrium of the individual transportation sector and on the potential regulatory evolutions that might follow.”
The statement also said that the government would provide support to individual drivers, but it did not provide any details. Some taxi unions have asked that drivers receive financial compensation from the state for their loss of business and the drop in the value of taxi licenses.