The Artists' Code Presents
France Goes Down Fighting - France On Strike

Our Tea Parties pale in comparison - just and objective point of view ;)
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Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation's gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille's airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France. Update: Pension reform bill just now passed by French senate. Article from the Boston Globe

French Senate Passes Pension Bill

By STEVEN ERLANGER and ALAN COWELL

Published: October 22, 2010

 

PARIS — After nearly three weeks of debate and a series of national strikes, the French Senate voted Friday evening to pass President Nicolas Sarkozy’s bill to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 and the age for a full pension to 67 from 65. The vote, 177 to 153, all but seals passage of the measure. The lower house, the National Assembly, has already passed a version of the bill. A committee from both houses will meet Monday morning to agree upon a final text that each house will vote on next week. By Wednesday, if all goes according to plan, the change will be law, despite the unions’ vow to hold two more days of national protest next Thursday, and again on Nov. 6.

“The day will come when former opponents will thank the president and the government” for “acting responsibly,” said the labor minister, Éric Woerth, just before the Senate voted.

The debate was accelerated under a special constitutional rule with more than 230 of 1,000 amendments still to discuss. The rule allowed the government to draft a text that adopted whatever amendments it favored and force a single vote on the bill, stopping a delaying process by the opposition that required a vote on every amendment.

The vote is a victory for Mr. Sarkozy, who has vowed to stick with the pension changes despite the protests in the streets and the blockage by unions of refineries and fuel depots, which have left many French drivers without gasoline. Mr. Sarkozy is hoping that by the time presidential elections roll around in 2012, the French will remember his refusal to give way to street protests in order to pass a bill that the government argues is vital to preserve the financial health of the pension system.

The French system relies on workers paying each year for the costs of those who have retired, and even under this new law the pension system will go into deficit again by 2018. The changes would be phased in beginning July 1.

Earlier on Friday, security forces scuffled with strikers to break a blockade of a major refinery near Paris. The Grandpuits refinery, 35 miles east of Paris, was one of 12 where strikers had halted operations since early last week, leaving drivers short of gasoline. Refineries, fuel depots and ports have been blocked and intermittent clashes have broken out between demonstrators and the police.

“What happened today is totally unacceptable,” Charles Foulard, a labor union official, told reporters at the Grandpuits refinery. Labor unions said three strikers had been slightly injured as the police moved in. The police operation was designed to secure access to fuel stocks to ease critical shortages, the authorities said.

About a fifth of the 13,000 French service stations are still out of fuel, down from 40 percent affected earlier this week, Jean-Louis Borloo, the environment minister, said Friday.

After a meeting later with oil industry executives, Prime Minister François Fillon said that shortages would probably continue for several days.

With a national school vacation beginning Friday afternoon, the national railroad authority said it was restoring high-speed services, which had been cut by half earlier in the week.