myBlessedHope

Unrest continues and escalates in Europe, over increases in retirement age,  this is a window to what we will see…  Christ spoke of unrest and violence during the end times.

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France Crippled by Strike Over Retirement Age

NICE, France (Oct. 12) — Hundreds of thousands of French protesters took to the streets today as part of the fourth nationwide, 24-hour strike in little more than a month over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The showdown over Sarkozy’s pension reforms, which resulted in a bigger turnout today than for the past three protests, may intensify even further if the unions follow through with threats for open-ended, rolling strikes.

 

Claude Paris, AP

Steel workers join a protest march in Marseille, France, on Tuesday. Teachers, mail carriers, bus drivers and other workers are trying to shut down France in a showdown over the government’s attempt to raise the retirement age by two years to save money.

French media reported that as many as 500,000 people marched in more than 240 demonstrations in Paris and around the country.

Travel was disrupted throughout the country with far fewer trains and buses operating and almost half the flights out of Paris’ two airports canceled. The Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe closed down for the day.

Dublin-based Ryanair had to cancel about 250 flights in and out of France today, prompting CEO Michael O’Leary to call on the European Commission to exempt essential services like air traffic control from European Union “right to strike” provisions, the Irish Independent reported.

Truckers, teachers, postal workers, air traffic controllers and refinery workers walked out for the strike, which could continue Wednesday if unions vote to do so tonight.

A massive protest taking place today in Nice’s Place Massena was so noisy that tourists scurried by on their way to the beach with their hands over their ears.

But the latest manif, as the French refer to their time-honored manifestations, often had the air of a party as television reports showed gleeful high school-age students walking alongside grinning, middle-aged civil servants in cities from Paris to Nice and Montpellier in the south and Toulouse in the southwest.

In fact, the number of youth taking part in the protest was marked all over France.

“We are here for our future as well,” said a 19-year-old Nice resident who identified herself only as Aurore, taking part in the daylong demonstrations.

“Unemployment is already bad enough in France. If we make people work past 60, that will make it that much harder for young people to get work.”

Union heads talked tough today.

“This is the last chance to make the government back down,” Francois Chereque, head of the trade union French Democratic Confederation of Labor, said on BFM-TV today. “Some reforms are needed but this one is not fair. The government is playing with fire. This will be a very big protest.”

Raising the retirement age to 62 is the most controversial aspect of Sarkozy’s long-promised pension reforms, but it’s hard to see how even massive protests will cause the administration to back down. France has one of the lowest retirement ages in the developed world.

The government says that pension costs have ballooned as France’s population ages, contributing largely to last year’s budget deficit of 7.5 percent of gross domestic product. Labor Minister Eric Woerth says pension reforms will save $29 billion by 2018. Without a rules change, the deficit in the French pension system would expand from its current $44 billion to $138 billion, the government says.

Even as students joined the fray, always a difficult escalation for French governments faced with strikes, Sarkozy’s political future would be clouded if he were to yield and give up on the reforms. “The protest is not weakening, but we can’t be sure it will grow,” Woerth told France 3 television today. “The government’s determination is total.”

The pension reform package has passed in the National Assembly and may be voted on by the Senate by the end of the week. Sarkozy has a majority in both houses of parliament.

“This is a done deal and the French know it,” said Allison Coe, an American real estate developer who has lived in Nice for 12 years. “But they feel impotent and [the strike] is a way for them to feel powerful and express themselves. All the other countries in the EU have higher retirement ages, and France can’t expect to be so pampered. Given how overbudget the country is, raising the retirement age two years is actually a small thing.”

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