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France hit by strikes as Sarkozy confronts unions
PARIS
Petroleumworld.com 11 14 07
French rail workers kicked off an open-ended, nationwide strike late Tuesday setting up a showdown between the unions and President Nicolas Sarkozy over his commitment to reform.
Unions at the state SNCF rail company walked off the job at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) and the shutdown was to extend on Wednesday to Paris metro trains and the GDF and EDF public utilities.
Police used truncheons and tear gas to break up a student protest at a Paris university in the hours before the strikes called to protest Sarkozy's plans to scrap pension benefits.
"Tomorrow is going to be a hellish day for travellers and perhaps for many days beyond that," said Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand, who held a last-minute meeting with the head of the CGT, the biggest union in the transport sector, on Tuesday.
"Millions of French people will be deprived of their fundamental freedom, the freedom of movement and even perhaps to work," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament.
Only 90 of the 700 high-speed TGV trains will be running, commuter service will be severely disrupted in the Paris region and there will be "almost no" metro service in the capital, according to metro operator RATP and rail operator SNCF.
Employees at the Paris opera house plan to walk off the job as do workers at the Comedie Francaise state theatre which cancelled a performance of "Pedro and the Commander" scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Paris hotels say more than 25 percent of their reservations this week have been cancelled because of the strike, while commuters have flocked to car-pooling and other alternative travel arrangements.
Hours before the rail strike began, Sarkozy re-asserted his determination to carry out economic reforms "right to the end", arguing that he had a mandate to enact the changes.
"I will carry out these reforms right to the end. Nothing will put me off my goal," he told the European Parliament during a visit to Strasbourg.
"The French people approved these reforms. I told them all about it before the elections so that I would be able to do what was necessary afterwards," he said.
Sarkozy convened a meeting of directors of the state SNCF rail company, the RATP and the EDF electricity and GDF gas utilities to "assess the situation and prospects in the coming days," said presidential spokesman David Martinon.
The unions have called for open-ended strikes while the operators are expecting massive disruptions to continue into next week when civil servants, teachers and other public employees stage their protest action.
At issue are pension privileges that allow some public employees to retire as early as age 50.
Currently the state injects some five billion euros (6.9 billion dollars) a year into the special pensions fund because contributions from workers fall far short of payments.
The last time a government tried to reform the "special" pensions in 1995, three weeks of strikes and demonstrations forced then president Jacques Chirac to climb down.This time, polls show strong support for Sarkozy in his showdown with the unions.
" It is by vanquishing the street that Sarkozy will win or lose his ability to deepen reforms and put in place the clean break that he announced more than a year ago," the right-wing Figaro newspaper wrote.
The strikes come as students have shut down about 20 of France's 85 universities in protest against a reform law they fear will give business too much of a say in running universities.
French police used truncheons and tear gas to break up a student protest at Paris X University in Nanterre, west of the capital.
A similar strike on October 18 enjoyed strong support and union leaders have vowed to stand their ground in the battle with Sarkozy.
" Workers in this country understand that we are not only fighting to defend the pensions of rail workers but also the future of the pension system in this country," said Christian Mahieux, from the Sud-Rail union.
" The government will have no other choice but to cede and withdraw its proposal," Mahieux said.Magistrates and court clerks are planning to take to the streets on November 29 while unions at the Meteo France weather service also announced a strike starting on November 20.
Story by Carole Landry from AFP
AFP 131940 GMT 11 07
Copyright© 2007 Petroleumworld. All rights reserved.
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