Workers on the Paris metro and suburban rail networks are joining French national rail workers on strike, little more than a week before the Euro 2016 football championship is due to begin.
In addition, dock workers are expected to stop work and hold their own protest.
Trade unions are protesting against work time changes but the strike comes amid general labour unrest.
The wider protests are over a bill to shake up the labour market.
However, the disruption to public transport in Paris is expected to be limited.
On the national rail network, about 60% of high-speed trains and between a third and a half of other services were expected to be running, the state rail company the SNCF said.
The labour reform bill comes before the Senate this month, having passed through the lower house without a vote.
France’s Socialist President, Francois Hollande, insists it will not be withdrawn despite months of unrest which erupted into street clashes between protesters and police at marches last Thursday, reports the BBC.
However, leading conservative opposition politician Nicolas Sarkozy has accused him of getting “everything wrong from the start” in his handling of the crisis.
“Pushing [the bill] through by force cuts out debate,” the former president told magazine Valeurs Actuelles. “If you don’t accept the debate of ideas in parliament, then it moves to the streets.”
