French workers denounce reforms

The Hindu, Sept 24

Strident march:Policemen demonstrate with private and public sector workers during a nationwide strike over pension reforms in Paris on Thursday. The placard reads “don’t touch our special status, 40 years are enough.”

Paris: There were angry scenes in the streets of France on Thursday as nearly 2 million workers, mainly from the public sector, struck work for the second time in three weeks. In massive demonstrations staged in big and small towns across the country, they shouted out their anger and opposition to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age to plug the massive deficit in national pension and retirement schemes.

Life in France was brought to a virtual standstill as strike-hit airlines, trains, subways and buses ran skeletal services.

Hospitals, post offices, schools and other public sector services were also seriously affected. The last strike staged on 7 September brought forth an estimated 2.2 million people into the streets. Though Thursday’s protests are not as mammoth, they are sufficiently strong to give the government a gigantic headache.

“Out, Out, they’re worthless!” claimed some of the banners that bore large caricatures of the President and his discredited Labour Minister Eric Woerth. Embroiled in a series of scandals involving conflict of interest he appears to have lost the confidence of the unions.

“Let Nicolas Sarkozy come and try to stand before vats of molten lead for eight hours a day — and that for 42 years! That man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. These are reforms for the rich. Not for poor beggars like us who started work at 16 — backbreaking work, mind you and now we can’t even stop although our backs and knees are gone!” said Ferdinand, who came to the capital as part of a smelters’ delegation.

Several voluble women’s groups were in the demonstrations. Women who have interrupted their careers to look after children and homes will not be able to claim their full pension until the age of 67. “What kind of justice is this? I gave up my job to bring up my two sons. Does it mean I have to be penalised for it?” shouted Christine, a 57-year-old secretary who went back to work once her children grew up.

The government on Thursday tried to play down the importance of the strike with the Elysee presidential palace issuing a statement to the effect that fewer people in the streets meant more people had accepted the reforms.

Legislation raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 was last week passed by the Lower House of Parliament where the President’s ruling right wing party the UMP and its centrist allies have an absolute majority.

Unruly scenes accompanied the passing of that legislation as the Speaker of the House put an end to all debate infuriating the opposition Socialists, Communists and Greens who jointly called for his resignation.

The Senate or Upper House begins discussing the draft law in early October.

The demonstration in Paris

Paris banner reads, “Withdraw the bill”

3 million people—the figure provided by the trade unions, demonstrated on Thursday in 232 French towns and cities against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension cuts.

What workers say:

In Paris, the WSWS spoke to Hasan, an electrician who first time  attended a day of action against Sarkozy’s policies. He said: “My bosses were very happy when he worked the longest hours in the firm as a youth, but that recently, as he got older, they had become more demanding.I hope the pension cut would not go through. On Sarkozy’s anti-Roma and anti-burqa policies Hasan said: “It’s rotten. He’s hiding his politics. With the [neo-fascist] Front National, at least one knows what one is up against. But Sarkozy always wants more.” In Marseille, the WSWS spoke to Jean-François, 42, who works at the CNRS: “I’m not immediately affected by the crisis, but there’s no policy for it. “Society is degenerating. They don’t care about people’s well being. Government jobs are going. There is a link between the anti-immigrant campaign and austerity policies. They say ‘bastard immigrants’ and pick on them instead of querying the system.” (

Source: wsws)

France faces another day of strikes to protest pension reform

The Hindu Sept 22

Commuters leave a suburban train at the Saint Lazare railway station in Paris, on September 7, 2010. French unions launched a major strike over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, with walkouts causing headaches for travellers and commuters. File photo: AP.

Long—suffering French commuters were bracing for another day of traffic tie—ups and crippled public transport, as French unions prepared a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform.

At the heart of the reform, which has already passed the National Assembly, is the gradual increase of the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018.

The reform is scheduled to be brought before the Senate on Thursday, and could become law by the end of next month.

Railway workers will begin the strike by walking off their jobs late Wednesday. The national rail network SNCF said it expects at least half of its scheduled high—speed TGV trains and only one of four regional trains to be operating during the strike.

In addition, public transportation is expected to be disrupted in Paris and nearly 80 other cities.

The French civil aviation agency DGAC said on Wednesday that half of all scheduled flights would also be scrubbed at Paris’s Orly Airport, with 40 per cent cancelled at the capital’s other major airport, Charles de Gaulle.

Other public services, such as those provided by schools and post offices, are also expected to be affected by the job action.

The strikes will be accompanied by mass street protests throughout the country.

Unions are hoping to mobilise at least as many protesters as in the last nationwide protest against the reform on September 7, when they said more than 2.5 million people took to the streets. Police estimates were significantly lower.

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