French strike turns the heat up for Sarkozy

PARIS - French workers turned up the heat on Nicolas Sarkozy by staging a fresh one-day strike on Tuesday and voting on whether to turn their protest against the president's pension reform into an indefinite stoppage.

In the fourth major action against the government reforms in just over a month, transport workers, teachers and civil servants stopped work in a bid to halt the reforms, a cornerstone of Sarkozy's program.

Millions have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest and hundreds of thousands were expected to join marches on Tuesday in Paris and in cities across France, with a further day of street protests planned for Saturday.

But the reform bill is edging closer to becoming law, and late on Monday French senators passed another key measure, raising the age for a full state pension from 65 to 67.

The lower house of parliament has already approved hiking the retirement age from 60 to 62, the most hotly contested measure.

Aviation and railway officials have warned travelers to expect serious disruption to air and rail traffic.

Up to half the flights to and from Paris Orly airport and one in three at Charles de Gaulle and Paris Beauvais were cancelled.

Just one in three TGV high-speed trains was running although Eurostar trains between Paris and London were due to operate normally.

Many Paris commuter trains were cancelled, but buses were operating normally and metro services were also less affected.

Workers at France's largest refinery overwhelmingly voted to join the strike, bringing the plant to a near standstill. Production on Tuesday at Total SA's Gonfreville-l'Orcher refinery in Normandy was "minimal," and no fuel would enter or leave the refinery until further notice, a union spokesman at the plant said, AP reported.

President Sarkozy's conservative allies insist there is no choice but to buckle down and accept the reform.

"It's difficult to tell the French that they have to work more, up to 67 years, but it has to be done," Labour Minister Eric Woerth told the senators debating the bill, according to AFP.

For Sarkozy, this contest is about principle. His conservative allies say: Faced with gaping budget deficits and sluggish growth, France must get its finances in better order. Even with the two-year change France would still have among the lowest retirement ages in the developed world.

Sarkozy's government is all but staking its chances for victory in presidential and legislative elections in 2012 on the pension reform, which the president has called the last major goal of his term. France's European Union partners are keeping watch, as they face their own budget cutbacks and debt woes.

Pension reform has turned into the biggest battle in Sarkozy's presidency and the right-wing leader's poll ratings are at rock-bottom.

A survey by pollster CSA for Le Parisien newspaper published Monday said 69 percent of French people still backed Tuesday's strike, with 61 percent in favour of more open-ended industrial action.

And an Ifop poll for France-Soir newspaper showed a sharp rise in support for the unions: 53 percent of those polled trusted the unions - up 10 points from a similar poll carried out in June.

Associated Press - Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 10/13/2010 page12)