PARIS — In the latest expression of discontent over government austerity moves across Europe, French transport and energy workers, teachers and civil servants took to the streets on Tuesday to protest plans to reform the country’s pension system — the third such strike here in just over a month.
The strikes in France follow waves of social unrest across the region in recent months, with protesters in Spain, Belgium, Greece and Ireland voicing their anger as governments seek to rein in exploding deficits that threaten to undermine their sovereign credit ratings, exacerbating national budget woes.
Union officials claimed a nationwide turnout of more than 3.5 million people, an increase of 20 percent from the previous strike on Sept. 23, while the French interior ministry put the figure closer to 1.23 million, up from just under a million in the last strike. In Paris, the police counted 89,000 protesters, up from 75,000 previously.
“The protest is not weakening, but we can’t be sure it will grow,” Éric Woerth, the labor minister who has spearheaded the new measures, told France 3 television. “The government’s determination is total.”
Several labor groups — including those representing the national rail and Paris public transport workers — voted Tuesday to extend their walkouts through Wednesday, and unions have also called for another day of demonstrations on Saturday, so the ultimate effects of the strikes remain unclear.
“Everyone admits that things can’t continue like this,” said François Vergne, a labor lawyer in the Paris office of the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. “Other countries have adapted their laws and there is a resigned consensus that retirement at 60 is no longer sustainable.”
Late Monday, the upper house of the legislature voted to raise the age of retirement with a full pension to 67 from 65, having already agreed to increase the minimum legal retirement age to 62 from 60. Senators from the opposition Socialist Party still hope to slow full adoption of the package through amendments.
Last month the lower house voted to raise the minimum pension age to 62.
“The power relationship is being modified,” Mr. Vergne said. “We are in a period of transition.”
Continue reading - NYTimes - French Strikes Disrupt Air and Rail Travel
BBC NEWS - French strikes biggest so far, say unions and police
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