Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

France's biggest transport strike in years tests Sarkozy

Workers march while subway and railroad trains stand motionless.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 19, 2007

PARIS - Commuters roller-skated, drove and biked to work, or simply stayed home. The biggest strike in 12 years crippled France's public transport system Thursday and handed President Nicolas Sarkozy the biggest political test of his young presidency.

The walkout, which came on the same day Sarkozy announced his divorce from his wife, appeared set to continue for a second day and showed that the president's ambitious plans to reform France will not be smooth. Only a third of the subway system was expected to run in Paris today.

The government was unbowed in its determination to scrap special retirement privileges for some state workers - but unions also stood firm, hoping to repeat past successes blocking efforts to make France more competitive.

As the president left town Thursday for a European Union summit in Portugal, his compatriots were left in a nation immobilized:

More than 90 percent of high-speed TGV trains were not running. Only one Paris subway line, which is automatic, with no drivers, was running as usual. Train service to and from Britain and Belgium and beyond was moderately limited by the strike.

Thousands of marchers, many blowing bullhorns or setting off firecrackers, took to the streets in Paris, one of dozens of similar protests across the country in support of the strike.

The dispute centers on Sarkozy's plans to scrap a special pension plan meant to give advantages to those in physically tough jobs, such as miners and train drivers. They are able to retire earlier - and on more generous terms - than the vast majority of France's working population.

The government insists that reforms are needed to keep the pension plan afloat for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Over a single day, strikes are not too intolerable: Many workers simply take off the day and count it against their relatively high number of vacation days.

"If it lasts a day, it's no big deal," said Francine Mirano, a secretary from a Paris suburb as she arrived on one of the few trains running. "But if it goes on for a long time, that's annoying."

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 01:09:10]