PARIS — Travel was upended, schools were closed and tens of thousands of people took to the streets across France on Thursday as railway workers, teachers, students and air traffic controllers went on strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s economic and social policies.

The protests are a new challenge for Mr. Macron’s government as it gears up to overhaul France’s rail system and promises changes to unemployment benefits and the pension system. Railway workers are already planning rolling strikes in April and May.

“This is a wake-up call for the government,” said Laurent Berger, the secretary general of the second-largest railway union. He said the government needed to have real discussions with the unions before “everything falls apart.”