FRENCH TRADE unions kept up the pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy over pension reform yesterday as a new wave of nationwide strikes and protests caused severe disruption to transport and schools.
More than 230 protests took place across the country to rally opposition to the government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. A quarter of teachers and almost 40 per cent of national rail workers went on strike, while up to half of all flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were cancelled.
With ministers and trade union leaders closely monitoring turnout for signs that opposition to the reform had hardened or waned since the last round of protests on September 7th, a fierce dispute began yesterday evening over the strength of the mobilisation.
The large CFDT union claimed 2.9 million people turned out, compared to 2.5 million two weeks ago, whereas the interior minister put the turnout at 997,000 – lower than its estimate last time.
Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry claimed more people were on the streets yesterday, and said the government must now listen to the unions and the opposition. “The reform is symbolic of the lack of fairness in this government’s policies,” she added.
The government’s pension Bill, approved last week by members of the lower house, envisages raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018.
The government says the reform is necessary to address the huge deficit, but a poll in the daily Libérationsuggested 63 per cent of voters supported the strikers.
In Paris, thousands congregated from early afternoon at Place de la Bastille before crossing the Seine in a raucous and colourful procession. Huge balloons rose above the crowd and the air was filled with booming music, whistles and chants.
Marie Colas, a 49-year-old Parisian hairdresser who was marching with her daughter Elodie, was adamant that there was still hope of blocking the reform. “A lot of people are saying it’s over, it’s lost. It’s not. We have to keep fighting,” she said.
Elodie (23), who is unemployed, said the government should focus instead on creating jobs for the many young people in a situation like hers. “The longer people work, the fewer jobs there will be and the harder it will be for young people to find work,” she said.
Among a group of about 30 nurses dressed in blue surgeons’ scrubs was Aurélie Gauthier, an anaesthetic nurse from Paris who was pushing her baby’s buggy along the route. She lamented that there was “less solidarity” now than when she attended marches with her father 20 years ago. “In France, the reforms always affect the same class of people – those on low and medium incomes,” she said.
One of her fellow medics held aloft a cartoon of a weary, elderly nurse with a walking stick making her way along a hospital corridor. Elsewhere, the posters had a sharper edge. “We’d all like a deputy’s pension,” said one.
Another demanded: "Expel Sarkozy." Many on yesterday's manifhoped the Senate – where the ruling bloc has a slimmer majority than in the lower house – would prove more receptive to the calls from the street. But according to Fabrice Le Calm, a Parisian bank official who was marching in a fluorescent orange bib, there was also a longer game being played.
“Even if it passes, we will have an election in two years and the new administration will remember that there were millions of people on the street against this. It will have an effect in two years,” he said.
For Le Calm and his colleague Philippe Colovos, giving up was not an option.
“We must not have any regrets when this is over,” Le Calm yelled over the music. “If we stop now, it will mean [the protests on] September 7th and last June were all for nothing. There’s still hope.”
Irish air passengers affected as flights cancelled
A NUMBER of flights to and from Ireland were cancelled yesterday as a result of the strike action by French workers.
Ryanair and Aer Lingus flights to and from Dublin, Shannon and Knock were affected by the dispute.
Some 11 Ryanair flights were cancelled on the airlines Dublin/Paris Beauvais, Dublin/Nice and Dublin/Tours routes as well as its Knock/Faro route, affecting 1,900 passengers.
The airline said some 30,000 passengers on up to 200 Ryanair flights across Europe were affected.
Passengers on cancelled flights were advised they could transfer to the next available flight free of charge or apply for a refund on their unused flight.
This again highlights the unfair and unjust nature of the EU’s passenger legislation which results in airlines picking up the bills for the disruptions which are completely outside of their control, a Ryanair spokesman said.
Four Aer Lingus flights were cancelled on the airlines Dublin/Paris and Dublin/Nice routes, affecting about 600 passengers.
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said all passengers on the airline’s Dublin/Paris route had been rebooked on later flights, while those travelling on the Nice route would be accommodated on flights today.
Sailings on Stena and Irish Ferries from Ireland to France were not affected by the strike action.
– Eoin Burke-Kennedy