(The
following article is from
the December 1-31,
2007
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has
taken his first big hit in public opinion polls after a nine-day bus
and rail strike that shook the country. The strike wound down on Nov.
23, as most transport workers voted to return to work and their union
leaders entered negotiations with the government. Transport authorities
said that it might be days before bus and rail lines returned to full
capacity. Trains were still not running in parts of southern France,
where hard-line unions voted to continue the work stoppage.
The
Confédération Générale du
Travail, UNSA and Sud, the three biggest rail unions, are resisting
Sarkozy's plans to extend the number of years they must work to qualify
for full pensions, from the current 37.5 up to 40. Transport workers
are among 500,000 state employees who successfully opposed the previous
round of pension cuts for the five million people employed by the
public sector in 2003.
Sarkozy's
so-called "reform agenda" has drawn strong opposition. A survey
published in the daily Paris newspaper
Metro showed that Sarkozy's
approval rating fell to 58 percent
from a pre-strike level of 63 percent.
Sarkozy
faces continued
resistance from other groups affected by his agenda of cuts to jobs and
pension, and his proposal to base pay rates on "merit". Public sector
workers staged a strike on Nov. 20 against pay and job cuts. Schools
and the postal service were affected by the action as civil servants
pressed for pay hikes and job security. More than 300,000 teachers
stayed off the job, forcing some schools to close. Flights were delayed
and newspapers not printed. Many workers at France's two main energy
utilities, Electricite de France and Gaz de France, joined the strike.
Two days
later, thousands of
students marched through Paris to protest a plan that would restructure
French universities with private funding. Students have been blocking
classes at dozens of France's 85 public universities to protest a law
allowing them to seek nongovernment funding. Critics fear the change
will mean schools closing their doors to the poor and scrapping classes
that can't attract private funding.
Although
civil servants,
transport workers, other sections of the working class, and students
have different demands, their protests are the biggest test to
Sarkozy's policies since he took office in May.
Found at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/14__STRIKES_CHALLENGE_FRENCH_PRESIDENTS.html