French unions strike over pension reform

PARIS (Reuters) - French unions staged nationwide strikes on Thursday and hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets to protest against plans to raise the retirement age to 62, throwing down the gauntlet to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Bernard Thibault, the head of France's largest CGT union, said at least two million protestors had joined some 200 rallies across the country. Police put the turnout at 797,000.

Whatever the real figure, it was clear that many more people had taken part than at a previous day of action last month and Thibault told reporters the government would be forced to water down its contested pension reform.

"This draft bill will not get passed in its current form," he said as he headed the main, sun-soaked rally in Paris.

Labour Minister Eric Woerth conceded that turnout had been "quite high," but said this would not weaken his resolve.

"This does not represent a threat to the government," he said. "It is quite obvious there is an absolute need to raise the retirement age, as all other European countries have done."

Sarkozy's government has vowed it will not revisit the centrepiece of the reform -- lifting the age of retirement to 62 from 60 by 2018 -- saying the move was needed to prevent the pension system from going bust and sinking state finances.

But unions have succeeded in torpedoing previous attempts to overhaul state pensions and pinned their hopes on massive support of their day of action to force a government retreat.

Thousands of transport workers walked off the job, hitting train, plane, metro and bus services, while civil servants, teachers and some private sector staff also went on strike.

"We are all in the same boat," said Jean-Luc Mariano, a docker who joined a march in the port city of Marseille.

"It is already hard enough working at the age of 56 in the docks. To add yet more years to that means we will never get to enjoy our retirement," he added.

CHALLENGING A TABOO

The government unveiled its planned overhaul of the pay-as-you-go pensions regime last week, saying that without major changes the system would run up annual deficits of 100 billion euros ($134.2 billion) by 2050.

Although a retirement age of 62 is still lower than in many of France's neighbours, it breaks a significant taboo in a country where many see retirement at 60 -- introduced by a Socialist government in 1983 -- as their right.

The SNCF national rail service said nearly 40 percent of its employees had gone on strike, while the education ministry said 20 percent of teachers took part and state energy company EDF reported that 16 percent of its workers had joined the dispute.

France's unions say Thursday's demonstrations will be a foretaste of the mass protests they plan for September when the reform is due to go to parliament for approval.

Sarkozy has spent considerable political capital on the pension drive, which is likely to be the government's last big reform before his expected re-election bid in 2012.

He has promised to keep up dialogue with unions and has not ruled out possible changes to parts of the reform, but has made clear he will not back down on retirement at 62.

The opposition Socialist party has said it will overturn the reform should it win power in 2012.

"This reform is both unjust and irresponsible because it doesn't resolve anything," said Socialist leader Martine Aubry.

A poll by BVA showed that two French people out of three supported the union protests but a survey, carried out by Ifop for Le Figaro daily on Wednesday, said 58 percent supported the idea of lifting the retirement age.

($1=.7453 Euro)

(Additional reporting by Sophie Taylor; Writing by Crispian Balmer; editing by Alex Lawler)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky