This is what resistance to the Catfood Commission should look like.
There have been repeated government efforts in the past to slash French workers' pensions. They have repeatedly been defeated with mass mobilizations playing a key role. Now, the finance-induced Great Recession is being used to back the most serious effort ever to roll back French workers' benefits. Workers are not taking it lying down.
French Unions Strike as Sarkozy Pension Debate Starts
September 07, 2010, 12:17 PM EDT By Gregory Viscusi
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- French unions struck nationwide as lawmakers began debating President Nicolas Sarkozy's bill to raise the retirement age.
Transport workers walked off the job last night, and most schools, post offices and government offices were closed today. A total of 1.12 million people marched in protests in 137 cities across the country, the Interior Ministry said, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.
Sarkozy has vowed not to compromise on the key plank of his pension proposals, which would lift the retirement age to 62 from 60. The bid to shore up the retirement system may calm bond investors and rating services in the wake of Europe's sovereign debt crisis....
Under the bill parliament is considering, the age at which full benefits can be tapped will rise to 67 from 65. The government has said it's willing to negotiate over allowing earlier retirement for some hardship jobs and for people who began their careers as teenagers. Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement has a 101-seat majority in the 577-member lower house....
Taxes Sought
Unions and the Socialists say taxes on capital and on high earners should be increased.
"Sarkozy cannot force people to work longer, making them pay more, while having a tax policy that favors the well-off," said Jean-Luc Combe, a 55-year-old civil servant in a Paris suburb, marching in the capital. "If the pensions system needs more funds, he cannot only force workers to pay more. It's unfair, he should also tax capital. He did not negotiate this, he imposed it."
On June 24, the last strike against the pension reforms, unions estimated 2 million protesters while the police said they counted 800,000.
The scope of the strike was impressive, particularly its impact on the transportation sector:
"This is the biggest mobilization in years and Sarkozy must take note of it," Francois Chereque, the head of Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail union, said in an interview with i-Tele television during the Paris march.
The Paris metro said one of 14 lines ran normally and eight had at least one in two trains operating, with the remaining five lines running one train out of three. On the RER commuter network, line "A" had one train in two, while line "B," which connects the airports to downtown, was virtually shut.
Just under half of the high-speed trains between Paris and provincial cities ran, the state rail network said. Eurostar to London and Thalys to Brussels ran normally. Two out of five trains to Frankfurt operated, while Geneva runs were at half service. There was no service to Italy and Spain, and night trains in France tonight were cancelled.
Trains, Planes
The SNCF, the state railroad system, said 43 percent of its workers were on strike as of 11 a.m.
France's civil aviation authority, the DGAC, ordered airlines to cut flights in and out of the two main Paris airports by 25 percent.
Air France, the country's largest airline, said all its long-haul flights operated, along with and 90 percent of the short-and medium-haul flights from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and 50 percent from Orly, according to its website.
The Labor Ministry said in a statement that 27 percent of civil servants struck. Among teachers, strikers totalled 28 percent.
I'll say it again: This is what resistance to the Catfood Commission should look like.
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