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(CNN) --
French workers will take to the streets Thursday to protest sweeping reforms to the country's pension system that, if implemented, will require most people in France to work two more years before retiring.
Eight of France's biggest unions, covering transport, education, police, executives and public sectors, called for Thursday to be the "first day of strikes and protests" against the proposed pension reform.
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Widespread strikes are expected, and it may be a “hellish Thursday” on public transport networks, Transport Minister Clement Beaune warned French broadcaster France 2 on Tuesday. The Paris transport authority predicts a “very disrupted” service " in the city's transport network.
One in five flights to and from Paris' Orly airport will be canceled today, according to France's civil aviation authority, due to a strike by air traffic control workers.
The authority said that this does not exclude the possibility of further delays and cancellations of the remaining flights.
Around 70% of primary school teachers are also expected to go on strike across France, according to the main union for this sector, Snuipp-FSU, and one in three primary schools in Paris will be closed.
The Snes-FSU union said around 50% of high school teachers in France will also go on strike.
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French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told French radio station RTL on Wednesday that more than 10,000 police and gendarmerie officers will deploy in France on Thursday in the face of protests;
3,500 of these will be in Paris.
The government has defended the reform as a progressive policy change and accounting balance, which will bring the pension deficit to a minimum by 2030.
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"If we don't pass this reform, the books won't be balanced, which means we'll either have to cut pensions for retirees or increase contributions for workers, thereby reducing the purchasing power of the French," government deputy Stephanie told CNN. Rist on Wednesday.
Despite the anger in the street, the government, which lacks a parliamentary majority, still has a constitutional path to force the reform on lawmakers and sign it into law.
But many have criticized the reform as ill-timed at best;
at worst, an insult to working people in France.
“This reform falls at a time when there is a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, a lot of fatigue.
In fact, it comes at the worst time," the head of the CFE-CGC union, François Hommeril, told CNN on Tuesday, pointing to the inflation that has rocked Europe this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Government spokesman Olivier Veran told reporters on Wednesday that 40 percent of French workers will be able to leave work before the age of 64 under the proposed regime thanks to exceptions for those who started work early or in jobs physically demanding.
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"We have the most protective and most developed system in Europe" for pensions, he said.
And he added: "Even after the reforms, we will retire in France better and earlier than in almost all eurozone countries."
Pension reform has long been a controversial issue in France.
In 1995, street protests halted reform efforts, and successive governments faced strong resistance to reforms that were finally passed in 2004, 2008, and 2010.
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