Pension protests waning as unions mount new strike

AFP - Hundreds of thousands of French strikers took to the streets Thursday in a desperate last ditch bid to force President Nicolas Sarkozy to scrap a just-passed law raising the retirement age.
   
But, while the crowds marching under a sea of trade union banners remained impressive, the interior ministry and unions reported numbers approximately halved compared to similar protests before the reform was voted.

Officials said that fewer than 200,000 had taken part by midday on what was a ninth one-day protest, compared to 480,000 on October 19, and unions admitted that demonstrators were being worn down.
   
"What's impressive is that this is doubtless the first time that the day after a law is voted we have such large demonstrations," said the head of the CGT union Bernard Thibault, calling on Sarkozy not to enact the law.
   
The CGT said that 170,000 people attended the Paris demo, around half the 330,000 who rallied in the capital last time. The government said the Paris figure was down from 60,000 to 13,000.
   
At least 270 rallies were held around the country, part of a movement that had threatened to paralyse the economy in recent weeks, with between 1.1 and 3.5 million nationwide drawn onto the streets for previous protests.
   
"It's difficult to see colleagues abandon us, to see them throw in the towel," oil industry worker Laurent Montels, 36, admitted at the Paris rally as those around him shouted "We don't want to die at work."
   
The good-tempered cortege snaked through the elegant shopping district of Boulevard Lafayette, although routes towards Sarkozy's Elysee Palace were blocked by rows of police vans and large crowds of CRS riot police.
   

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"It's going to continue even if the law is voted," said Fidele Massala, 62. "It's not just retirement. The same problems are everywhere, there's no work."
   
Amid sporadic protests elsewhere, power was cut at the finance ministry for an hour at the start of the day, in what officials described as "an apparent act of ill will".
   
Most of the demonstrations of recent weeks have been peaceful, but gangs of youths on the fringes of rallies or of school blockades have clashed with riot police in several cities and authorities are on high alert.
   
An opinion poll by the CSA institute published in Le Parisien at the start of this latest day of action showed 65 percent of French voters support the trade unions' battle to protect workers' right to retire at 60.
   

But, with the reform now formally approved by parliament and many families enjoying the half-term school holiday, labour leaders warned that they were not expecting to match previous mass mobilisations.
   
At least one more day of action is planned after Thursday, on November 6, but the French parliament has approved Sarkozy's pensions bill and his aides say he intends to sign it into law on or around November 15.
   
France's Socialist opposition, which accuses the right-wing government of forcing ordinary workers to work longer to compensate for the failures of high finance, demanded that the president stay his pen.
   
Sarkozy's administration has all along insisted that raising the retirement age is not only necessary but "inevitable", with the French population ageing and the public deficit expanding.
   
Half of domestic flights were cancelled at Paris' second airport Orly, and authorities predicted that a third of them would be cancelled at the city's main international hub at Charles de Gaulle.
   
Rail services were also affected, with only six regional expresses and eight TGV high-speed links to Paris in 10 working.
   

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Management estimated that 16.8 percent of railway workers were on strike, unions 26.5 percent, and both figures were lower than in previous actions.
   
Paris public transport was expected to work normally. Just over five percent of post office workers walked out, according to management.
   
Around 7.5 percent of France Telecom workers were on strike, the management said, about half the 15 percent on strike on October 19, with civil servant numbers down from 11.5 percent to 4 percent, the government said.
   
Fuel supplies, which were last week threatened by fuel depot blockades, are returning to normal, industry officials said, but one in five filling stations is still out of fuel and half of France's refineries are still on strike.
   
Sarkozy's approval rating is languishing at a new low of 29 percent, but he nevertheless hopes a pension reform victory can help restore his political fortunes in the run-up to re-election in 2012.