--- "Steven L. Robinson" <srobin21 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Transport and utility strikes pose biggest threat to
> Sarkozy
>
> Unions set for open-ended stoppage over pensions
> ·Defiant president insists
> reforms will go ahead
>
> Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
> The Guardian
> Tuesday November 13, 2007
>
>
> France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will tonight
> confront the biggest
> challenge yet to his six-month tenure, when
> transport and utility workers
> begin open-ended strike action which could paralyse
> the country, deepening
> the sense of a "November of discontent". Unions and
> the left yesterday
> accused Sarkozy of deliberately forcing workers onto
> the streets for a
> showdown over pensions reform in order to portray
> himself as a hard-man
> reformer who is prepared to stand his ground.
>
> From 8pm tonight, transport, gas and electricity
> workers, and staff at the
> Paris Opera and Comédie Française, will down tools
> in protest at plans to
> end special pension benefits enjoyed by certain
> public sector workers.
> Ending these special deals is key for Sarkozy if he
> is to retain his image
> as a tough reformer and push through more difficult
> changes in labour law
> and general pensions early next year. The special
> deals - which date back to
> the end of the second world war or, in some cases,
> to the time of Louis
> XIV - allow certain workers, such as train drivers,
> to retire early on
> favourable packages because their jobs were
> historically seen as dangerous
> or strenuous.
>
> A 24-hour strike over the issue last month was the
> country's biggest
> industrial action for more than a decade. But this
> week's strike is
> open-ended and can be renewed day by day.
>
> The government fears the spread of a "contagion"
> which could see the strike
> prolonged to join up with other protest action
> planned for coming weeks.
> Next Tuesday, public sector workers, including
> teachers, civil servants,
> post and telecom workers will stop work for 24 hours
> in protest at Sarkozy's
> plans to cut jobs in the bloated state sector. On
> November 29, magistrates
> will take to the streets over cuts to the courts
> system. Already, students,
> largely on the hard left, have started blocking
> faculties in protest at
> university reforms voted in this summer.
>
> Sarkozy, who has styled himself as the man who can
> solve France's economic
> problems, insisted yesterday: "The door will always
> be open for dialogue.
> But we will carry out these reforms because they
> have to be done." The
> employment minister, Xavier Bertrand, refused to
> hold last-minute talks
> between the government, unions and company bosses.
> He said the reform would
> go ahead and the "status quo" was "unthinkable".
>
> Bernard Thibault, head of the Communist-leaning CGT
> union, criticised the
> government's stance, warning that it had
> deliberately forced the unions on
> to the street, stoking conflict, "to set an
> example". He said he was
> prepared for a long strike.
>
> Sarkozy is counting on public opposition to the
> strike. A survey last month
> showed 77% of French people were in favour of
> reforming the special pension
> privileges, which are seen as unfair. Recent polls
> have shown limited
> support for the strike action.
>
> Sarkozy, keen to contain the wider protest movements
> gathering pace, has
> recently been seen making concessions to other
> unhappy constituencies, such
> as Breton fishermen. When the fishermen protested
> over the price of diesel,
> they received a presidential visit, €30m (£21m)
> in aid and cuts to social
> charges. Protesting students have also been promised
> a generous aid package
> for housing. Such gifts have been seen as mixed
> messages. As Sarkozy marks
> six months in power, some of his reforms have
> already seen slight tweaks,
> postponement and watering down. The unions are now
> determined to stand their
> ground before further major reforms next year.
>
> The Socialist MP Bruno Le Roux warned yesterday:
> "The government must not
> think that the anger in this country is limited to
> the railway workers or
> those on special pension deals. Today in our
> country, there is a general
> discontent."
>
>
> Backstory
>
> French governments have repeatedly run into trouble
> when trying to axe
> public sector retirement deals. In December 1995, an
> attempt by Jacques
> Chirac's first government, under Alain Juppé,
> prompted three weeks of
> strikes which paralysed public transport and
> disrupted schools and the
> postal service. Juppé eventually abandoned the
> pensions reform but it
> contributed to the defeat of the centre-right in
> 1997.
>
> In 2003, when François Fillon, then work minister
> and now prime minister,
> launched his pensions reform, he left the special
> state pensions privileges
> untouched to avoid strikes. But attempts to reform
> restrictions on hiring
> and firing young workers triggered protests last
> spring which saw millions
> march on the street against Dominique de Villepin,
> the prime minister.
>
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2209915,00.html
>
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