French to Continue Strikes Because of Increased Retirement Age

Added by James Morley on October 17, 2010

Unions from France are set to hit the streets on Saturday along with millions of protesters demonstrating against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s modification to increase retirement age in France.

Decisions took by Sarkozy’s government had already resulted in a four days strike all over the country that caused fuel supply squeezing, rail services cutting and flight grounding.

Nonethelss, the government is not ready to back down, claiming that the reform will help stop a EUR 32 billion annual deficit coming from pension plans.

Union leaders intend to mobilize enough people to catch the government’s attention even though the ongoing strikes will disrupt traveling during the weekend.

According to unions, the strike held last Tuesday brought over 3.5 million people to the streets although the government claimed that only 1.23 million protested.

Official sources announced that both air and rail travel in Frabce might be affected by the protests on Saturday as most the workers here will be on strike too.

There were flights grounded on Friday as the strike continued.

The government is most concerned about students who might become rowdy. Friday’s protest forced police to use tear gas to disperse crowds and demonstrations only ended with more people being arrested up until now.