Major unrest in Paris as strike escalates, cutting off fuel pipelines and terminals, it is really getting bad. Greece continues to have problems as well…
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Fuel supply to Paris airports cut amid pension strikes
Police and students clashed in France in pension reform protests
The fuel pipeline to Paris’s main airports has been shut off amid strikes over government pension reforms.
The company that operates the pipeline told French media that the capital’s main airport, Charles de Gaulle, could run out of fuel as early as next week.
There are fears of fuel shortages as all of France’s 12 oil refineries have been hit by strikes, and many oil depots remain blockaded.
Unions are opposed to government plans to raise the retirement age.
Trapil, the firm that operates the pipeline to Paris’s airports, said supplies had been cut off on Friday.
A company spokesman told AFP news agency: “Orly airport has stocks for 17 days, and Roissy [Charles de Gaulle] for at least the weekend.”
A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris, the authority that operates both airports, told Reuters news agency it was “not at all worried about stocks” – but did not say how long these would last.
Panic buying
In recent days government officials have tried to play down fears of petrol shortages, insisting that France has enough to see out the industrial action.
However, panic buying has broken out in some areas, putting supplies under greater strain.
Fuel distributors said several hundred filling stations had to close because supplies had run out.
Earlier on Friday, riot police reopened oil depots that had been blockaded in Fos-sur-Mer in the south, Cournon in central France, and Lespinasse and Bassens in the south-west, AFP reports.
But strikers threw up fresh pickets in at least five fuel depots – at Caen and Ouistreham in the north, Le Mans and Vern-sur-Seiche in the north-west, and La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast.
Some French petrol stations are already running out of fuel
French Junior Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told reporters: “We cannot afford petrol shortages. One must bear in mind those of us who need transport.”
On Thursday, France’s petrol distributors urged the government to release emergency fuel stocks, warning that only 10 days’ fuel was left.
Demand at petrol pumps has surged by 50% in the past two days.
In the port of Marseille, more than 70 ships carrying crude for refining are stranded as dockers continue their rolling strike.
The protests erupted after centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and from 65 to 67 for a full state pension.
More than a million people took to the streets in the latest national protest on Tuesday.
France’s main unions have since stepped up their action, calling for the fifth in a series of strikes and street protests on 19 October.
The BBC’s Christian Fraser in Paris says another concern for the government will be the growing involvement of the student lobby.
Students, who joined Tuesday’s demonstrations in large numbers, held further protests on Friday.
Riot police used tear gas and made 16 arrests as they fought running battles with secondary school students in the central city of Lyon.
More than 300 secondary schools across France – about one in 15 – remain affected by strikes and blockades.
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WRAPUP 2-Fuel to Paris reduced as French protests escalate
* Supply cut at fuel pipeline to Paris
* Airport worker strike grounds some flights
* Police arrest dozens in student protests
(Adds Sarkozy quote, detail on fuel supply, Marseille mayor)
By Catherine Bremer
PARIS, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Striking French oil refinery workers shut down a fuel pipeline supplying Paris and its airports on Friday and airport workers grounded some flights as protests mounted to derail an unpopular pension reform.
France’s airport operator played down worries of fuel shortages, but strikes at all of France’s 12 refineries and fuel depot blockades have prompted motorists to stock up on petrol.
Truck drivers also were set to join the fray as momentum built for a day of street rallies on Saturday.
The widening protests have become the biggest challenge facing President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is struggling with rock-bottom popularity ratings as he tries to appease financial markets by stemming a ballooning pension shortfall.
“This movement is deeply anchored in the country,” CGT union leader Bernard Thibault told LCI television. “The government is betting on this movement deteriorating, even breaking down. I think we have the means to disappoint them.”
Police broke up blockades at fuel depots in southern France but Air France was forced to cancel some flights from Paris as runway workers at Orly airport halted work.
A nationwide strike that could hit various industries is planned for Tuesday, a day before the Senate is due to vote on a bill to make people work longer for their pensions.
France’s main trucking union called on truck drivers to join Tuesday’s strike, though they may not be able to use their bosses’ vehicles to block roads.
Turnout among striking rail workers dropped to 15 percent on Friday, from 40 percent earlier in the week, but union leaders hope to galvanise the public for next week’s action with the same force that saw a 1995 pension bill crushed by 24 days of protests. Next Tuesday’s strike could hit various sectors.
The company operating a key fuel pipeline from Le Havre in northern France to Paris said a refinery strike had cut supply to the capital. A spokeswoman for Paris airport operator ADP said they had several days of fuel stocks.
The best chance Sarkozy’s opponents have of bringing down his pension bill is if strikes at oil refineries continue and start to threaten fuel supply, or if youths hit the streets en masse and set off violent scuffles.
RUBBER BULLETS BANNED
TV footage showed riot police using teargas to contain young protesters in the southern city of Lyon. Rubbish bins were set alight and 23 youths were arrested.
In Paris, police got orders to stop using “flashball” riot-control pellets, a type of rubber bullet, to quieten crowds after a secondary school student was badly injured on Thursday.
Students at hundreds of schools across France joined the protest movement in force from Thursday, shouting anti-Sarkozy slogans. Dozens have been arrested and on Friday more were barred by riot police from nearing the prime minister’s offices.
“What will they become if tomorrow there is no money to pay their pensions? I ask each of them to ask themselves the question,” Sarkozy said.
Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor of the southern port of Marseille, where youth rallies have come on top of unrelated strikes by port workers and garbage collectors, said teenagers should go back to school.
“Those who are urging secondary school students into the street are irresponsible. It’s staggering,” he said.
Polls show two-thirds of French people oppose Sarkozy’s plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 and lift the age at which people can retire on a full pension to 67 from 65.
The government has been at loggerheads with unions for months over the issue and five rounds of strike action since the summer have badly disrupted public transport and air travel.
The strikes have had negligible impact on France’s economy but have sparked worries among financial analysts about whether France will struggle to push through broader austerity measures necessary to bring down its deficit.
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Paris airports pipeline cut amid protests: company
PARIS (AFP) – – The fuel pipeline to Paris’ two main airports as well as depots outside the capital was cut on Friday, operator Trapil told AFP, as pension reform protests around the country hit supplies.
The main Paris air hub, Charles de Gaulle, could run out of fuel as early as next week, a company spokesman said, adding that three fuel depots supplying road filling stations south of the capital would also be hit.
Contacted by AFP, Paris’ airport authority had no immediate comment.
“Orly airport has stocks for 17 days, and Roissy for at least the weekend,” the Trapil official said, adding that the pipeline carried petrol, diesel and aviation fuel from the Grandpuits refinery east of Paris, which is on strike.
The CGT trade union said its members, who are protesting plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, had downed tools at Grandpuits and that production there would halt completely on Friday.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has vowed to press ahead with the pensions reform bill, and has deployed police to break-up demonstrations that had blocked several fuel depots around the country.
But most of the countries’ refineries have been shut down by the strikes, and fuel distributors have complained that panic buying and disrupted supplies could lead to shortages unless they are allowed to tap emergency supplies.
The government has given the firms’ permission to tap into their own emergency stocks, but has resisted calls to open the part of the strategic fuel controlled by a government committee.
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French police reopen three storage depots as fuel shortage looms
French police on Friday forcibly reopened three fuel storage depots that had been blocked by striking workers in a bid to reassure motorists that the country is not facing an acute gasoline shortage despite the shutdown of most French refineries.AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent in riot police Friday to reopen fuel depots blocked by strikes, as the pipeline to Paris airports was cut in an escalating battle over pension reform.
But even as officers forced open the barricades at some depots, strikers threw up new pickets at other distribution centres across the country to fight against moves to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Students took to the streets again in demonstrations across France, with more than 300 schools hit by a fourth consecutive day of blockades or other actions to stop pupils attending classes, officials said.
Sarkozy on Thursday took the decision to send in the police in order to prevent fuel shortages amid reports of panic buying after all of France’s 12 refineries shut down or reduced operations because of the strikes.
The government has given oil companies permission to tap into their own emergency stocks, but has resisted calls to open the part of the strategic fuel controlled by a government committee.
Workers at a depot in Fos-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean did not resist when police intervened to reopen the facility, unions said.
Police also reopened depots at Bassens and Lespinasse in the southwest and Cournon d’Auvergne in the centre.
But strikers threw up fresh pickets in at least five fuel depots on Friday, at Caen and Ouistreham in the north, Le Mans and Vern-sur-Seiche in the northwest, and La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast.
The strike action led to the shutdown of the fuel pipeline to Paris’ two main airports as well as depots outside the capital, the pipeline operator Trapil told AFP.
The main Paris air hub, Charles de Gaulle, could run out of fuel as early as next week, a company spokesman said, adding that three fuel depots supplying road filling stations south of the capital would also be hit.
“Orly airport has stocks for 17 days, and Roissy (Charles de Gaulle) for at least the weekend,” he said, explaining that the pipeline carried petrol, diesel and aviation fuel from the Grandpuits refinery east of Paris.
The CGT trade union said its members had downed tools at Grandpuits and that production there would halt completely on Friday.
France’s main unions have upped the ante in their fight against pension reform, calling for their members and supporters to hold the fifth in a series street rallies on Saturday and another one next Tuesday.
A nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations last Tuesday brought more than a million people on to the streets, and workers in some sectors have kept up their stoppages since then.
High school pupils have also been demonstrating in several cities in what is traditionally interpreted in France as a sign of hardening resistance.
Pupils threw stones at police at two schools north of Paris and officers clashed with youths and made arrests in Lens in the north on Thursday.
“There have never since 1995 been so many protestors … from both the public and private sectors, and now from all generations,” CGT leader Bernard Thibault told LCI television.
In 1995 then president Jacques Chirac backed down over pension reform after a three-week transport strike that paralysed France.
But despite the ongoing strikes and protests, the current government shows no sign of retreating from what is a cornerstone of Sarkozy’s reform agenda as he prepares for his likely re-election battle in 2012.
Key parts of the reform, part of efforts to rein in France’s public deficit, have been definitively passed by the upper house Senate and the government hopes for it to be passed in its entirety by the end of the month.
Unions and the Socialist opposition say the right-wing president is making workers pay an unfair share of the bill for the financial crisis and have made alternative proposals for funding the deficit
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