France Telecom employees protested government plans to privatize the group, with management characterizing the mobilization as modest and unions describing it as robust resistance.
Company officials said 18.3 percent of the workforce heeded calls for a 24-hour strike, while the SUD-PTT union spoke of a figure of 25 percent and said the response was “significant.”
Another union, the CGT, said between 30 and 70 percent of the workforce was on strike, with turnout varying among branches.
The strike call followed an announcement by the government September 1 that it would reduce its stake in France Telecom to below 50 percent.