(CNN) -- More than a million people are expected to rally in France for another day Wednesday to protest planned pension reforms.
The government is working to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and make other changes to the pension system.
About 1.1 million people have demonstrated across the country, French media quoted police as saying.
Unions put the figure at 3.5 million nationwide, with the rolling strike in its second week.
The Senate is moving ahead with a vote on pension reform amid the protests, which have crippled transportation, and affected schools and fuel supplies.
The French education ministry said students from 379 high schools are skipping classes to join the strikes.
Some students told CNN in Paris that they are worried they won't be able to get jobs if the current generation hangs onto jobs for an extra two years.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the main proponent of pension reform, said it was "essential" and that "France will implement it."
French senators stayed in the chamber until 3 a.m. Tuesday, working their way through roughly 1,000 amendments to the pension reform bill. A final vote is due later this week.
The lower house of parliament has already passed it, by a vote of 329 to 233. If there are substantial differences between the Senate and National Assembly versions, a conference committee will have to iron them out before the final version goes to the president.
"It is natural and normal that it creates certain fears," Sarkozy said about the reform. "And it is also normal and natural that a democratic government in a parliamentary democracy assures that drivers find fuel."
Thousands of gas stations across the country have run dry as strikers block fuel deliveries, petroleum industry sources told CNN.
The exact number of gas stations without fuel is constantly changing as some run out of fuel and others get new deliveries.
The government contends that France cannot afford the earlier retirement payments.
