French workers are fighting government plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

Ten out of 12 French oil refineries were hit by the strikes Wednesday, with eight of them fully or partially stopped, according to the French Union of Petroleum Industries.

About half of Paris Metro workers were on strike, and will stay off the job Thursday, a Metro-transport union spokesman said.

About a quarter of French train operator SNCF's staff were on strike Wednesday, down from 40 percent on Tuesday, a company spokesman said.

Tuesday's demonstrations were the biggest yet in a series of rolling strikes against the reforms -- specifically, plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The Ministry of the Interior said as many as 1.2 million people walked out of work Tuesday, while unions put the figure at 3.5 million.

There were about 250 demonstrations across the country, the government said.

About 89,000 people took to the streets of the capital Paris, police said, while unions said it was 330,000.

Either way, the numbers are bigger than the last protest in Paris, which police estimated to be 65,000 marchers.

Vehicle traffic on the streets of Paris seemed to flow as normal and businesses were open, but more disruption loomed.