The French government is heading for a showdown with the country's powerful labor unions next week, as neither side looks ready to back down over a pension dispute that has disrupted transport across the country for an entire month.

Railway workers walked out on 5 December over reform plans that would create one pension system for all French workers - abolishing the 42 different systems that exist at the moment, including generous arrangements for certain professions, like train drivers, some of whom can retire as early as 52.

Hardline unions say they won't go back to work unless President Emmanuel Macron abandons the reform plans entirely. For more moderate groups the sticking point is the government's plan to offer financial inducements for all employees to work until at least 64, while keeping the statutory retirement age at 62.

That does offer some opportunity for the government to drive a wedge between those unions who accept the idea of reform in principle, and those who reject it entirely, but the concessions it has offered so far have been met by a stubborn refusal to budge.

The strike is starting to fall off - only about seven percent of railway staff, or around 35 000 people, are actually still on strike, and virtually no private sector staff have followed their example. That means French railway operator the SNCF was able to operate an almost normal service on long distance lines over the weekend, although the Paris metro remains severely disrupted.

But the unions are now promising to redouble their efforts as France comes back to work from the Christmas break. Refinery workers are to join the strike from Tuesday, aiming to block refineries across the country and cause a petrol shortage, while major demonstrations have been called for Thursday and Saturday.

Opinion polls say three quarters of the French accept the need for some pension reform and two thirds think the hardline unions are going too far, while a similar proportion oppose the government's current plans. That does leave space for a compromise that could be acceptable to most voters, but both the unions and the President have hardened their rhetoric in recent days.

This is about much more than pensions now: For the unions, backing down would spell the beginning of the end of their political influence. For Macron, it's a question of credibility. He's determined to succeed in changing a system that has defeated the last three French presidents' attempts to reform it.