PARIS, May 13 — May in France is the month of lilies of the valley, the first red cherries, the Cannes film festival — and workers' strikes.þþToday, workers throughout the public sector heeded their unions' call to walk off the job to protest the center-right government's plan to overhaul the country's expensive and generous pension system. þþThe strikes halted planes, trains, subways and buses across the country, canceled a vast majority of classes in schools and universities, cut services at hospitals and prevented most newspaper distribution and mail delivery.þþAviation officials estimated that 80 percent of flights were grounded, while the state railway company canceled two-thirds of its mainline services. Workers at the state-owned Électricité de France joined the walkout, leading to a 10 percent reduction in electricity output.þþLabeled Black Tuesday by the news media here, the daylong shutdown, together with demonstrations in about 100 cities and towns across France, was described in an editorial in Le Monde as the biggest labor rebellion since three-week strikes over pension reform in 1995. Those walkouts so damaged the government of Prime Minister Alain Juppé that it lost a general election two years later.þþAbout 850,000 people marched against the pension reform plan across the country today, the Ministry of the Interior said. Union officials put the figure at more than one million.þþDespite the ritualized nature of this spring's strikes, there is no issue that more deeply divides workers and governments throughout Europe than the right to a generous government-guaranteed pension and even early retirement.þþConfronted with the demographic reality of retirees who are living longer and the prospect of waves of baby-boom retirees, the governments of France, Germany and Austria are finding it necessary to forge strategies to scale back treasured social benefits like pensions. In Austria today, as many as 100,000 schoolteachers joined a nationwide strike to protest planned cuts in pension benefits.þþAt the Place de la République, the meeting place for the masses of demonstrators in Paris, children rode on an inflatable carnival ride while street vendors sold kebabs and French fries to hungry marchers and onlookers. The Communist Party of Maoist France sold copies of Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book.þþAmong the chants were, ÿRetirement, yes, but before death!ÿ and ÿRaffarin — geriatric minister!ÿ a reference to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.þþFirefighters pushed a life-size dummy of a dead fireman in a wheelchair, his face scarred and burned. A group of hospital workers waved a banner showing tombstones and the inscription ÿCemetery of the heroic hospital workers who died in service.ÿþþUnion officials hope to build on the momentum of the strike today and continue the labor disruption until the government backs down.þþÿAll the ingredients are there for a general strike,ÿ Didier Le Reste, national secretary for railroad workers at the Confédération Générale du Travail, France's second largest union, told Europe 1 radio. ÿIf the government sticks to its current plans, we can expect more strikes that will spill over from one-day actions.ÿþþBut the government, which has begun a $17 million public information campaign about its plan, has no intention of abandoning it.þþThe government spokesman, Jean-François Copé, acknowledged after Mr. Raffarin met his ministers today, that ÿThis is an important day, of course, but also a new chance for us to explain, explain, explain.ÿ þþÿWe must keep explaining the issues at stake because we want to safeguard our pension system,ÿ he added. ÿIf there is no reform, the system collapses.ÿþþIn anticipation of the strike, Mr. Raffarin said on television last week that Parliament, not the street, would rule on the plan's fate. ÿThe street should express itself, but it's not the street that governs,ÿ he said.þþOne banner in the demonstration today read ÿSo isn't it the street that governs?ÿþþThe unions, which derive their power from the 5.4 million workers employed directly or indirectly by the state, have been emboldened by an opinion poll on Monday indicating strong public sympathy for their cause.þþAccording to a survey in the popular daily newspaper Le Parisien, 64 percent of those polled either endorsed the protests or sympathized with the unions' goals. Sixty-five percent said they were worried about the future of their pensions.þþUnder the plan, which calls for modest reform, France intends to bring public sector workers — more than one-fourth of the French work force — in line with the private sector by 2008. That would force public sector workers to contribute to the state pension system for 40 years, up from 37 1/2 years now.þþGovernment support for early retirement would be phased out. Tax incentives would be introduced to attract workers to company-based savings programs like those in the United States, and workers would be entitled to a pension ÿbonusÿ if they worked beyond 40 years.þþThe government has already abandoned a proposal to increase contributions by civil servants. They will continue to pay 7.85 percent of their salary, two percentage points below the private sector.þþThe strike today was not only crippling, but also unsettling because of its ad hoc nature. Foreigners showed up for appointments for working papers at the Prefecture of Police only to discover that the offices were closed.þþStudents had no idea whether their teachers and professors — who themselves have been protesting over financing — would show up for class, and most did not. In the Aix-Marseille area, for example, more than 80 percent of teachers at elementary schools and more than 70 percent of high school teachers stayed off the job.þþAn official announcement that one in 10 Métro and regional trains would be running lured many commuters to their Métro stations. Huge crowds gathered at major Métro stations, only to find that the metal entry gates had been locked.þþOnly one in three buses in Paris was running and taxis were scarce, forcing many commuters who did not stay home to walk. Bicycles that had seen better days were taken out of storage for the day, and bicyclists competed with in-line skaters for street and sidewalk space. Parisians who were obviously not used to walking to work were seen poring over Paris-by-neighborhood maps.þþHighway travel throughout France, meanwhile, was free, because there were no workers to collect tolls.þþParts of Paris seemed shut down. The Tuileries Gardens and part of the Luxembourg Gardens were closed to the public.þþ
Source: NY Times
