French trade unions launched the second 24-hour strike in a month on Thursday against President Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reform, seeking to force his government to go back on plans to end retirement at 60.
Strikes and street protests were expected to cause widespread disruption to rail, air and urban transport, schools and postal services, with organisers hoping to better the huge turnout in demonstrations on Sept. 7. [ID:nLDE68K145
Unions said 2.5-2.7 million protested around the country that day, while police estimated the number at 1.1 million.
Train services were cut by half or more from Wednesday evening as the strike began to bite, the state railway said.
But Labour Minister Eric Woerth, in charge of steering the bill through parliament, vowed to press ahead regardless, telling reporters: "We haven't changed. We are very firm on the core of the reform, which is (the retirement) age."
The government says the legislation is essential to erase a growing deficit in the pay-as-you-go pension system, curb rising public debt and preserve France's coveted AAA credit ratings, which enables it to borrow at the lowest market rates.
"If you don't reform it, it simply won't be viable and we won't be able to pay French people's pensions," Woerth said.
Unions and the left-wing opposition say the plans to raise the retirement age to 62 by 2018, raise civil servants' contributions to private sector levels and make people work longer for a full pension are unjust.
They will be harshest on those who start work young or do physically exhausting jobs, and on women who take career breaks to have children and will have to work till 67 for a full pension.
"NOT DEAD"
The lower house of parliament adopted the bill last week but it still has to go through the Senate, which is due to debate the measure next month. The ruling centre-right parties have a majority in the upper house too, but some conservative senators have said they will seek to amend the bill.
Socialist party leader Martine Aubry urged supporters not to give up, noting that mass protests had forced a previous conservative government to withdraw a low-wage youth employment contract in 2006 even after parliament had adopted it.
"We are told 'there's no point, retirement at 60 is dead'. It's not dead," she told Socialist lawmakers on Wednesday. "We will throw all our force into the battle because pension reform is a battle for justice and for the republic."
Trade union leaders will decide how to take forward their struggled based on the scale of Thursday's protests.
Some, such as Force Ouvriere and the radical Sud Rail want to call rolling strikes over several days to build pressure on the government to yield when the bill comes to the Senate.
However, political analysts question whether most workers will be willing to sacrifice several days' pay in the midst of an economic crisis to confront a government which appears resolute.
Sarkozy has made the pension reform a key part of his legacy and a potential springboard for a widely expected re-election bid in 2012. To back down would leave his presidency in tatters.
Ministers have expressed willingness to make concessions on side issues such as the definition of arduous work qualifying for earlier retirement, and the plight of those with fragmented pension rights, but not on the key part of the reform.
