(The following article by Karine G. Barzegar was distributed by the Associated Press on June 7.)
PARIS — French strikers disrupted train and bus service and sanitation workers dumped garbage in the street in the fourth day of a nationwide protest Friday against government plans to reform pensions.
The strikes came as tourist season gathered pace ahead of summer. On Friday, tourists were seen waiting in vain for airport buses.
Angry strikers stepped up their provocative action. Demonstrators cut power lines at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, halting all outbound traffic for several hours, a spokesman for state-run rail authority SNCF said.
Overall, one of every three trains in Paris was affected by the action on Friday. In the southern city of Marseille, only one tramway was running.
The trouble was expected to mount next week. Tuesday — the day Parliament begins debate on pension reform — is marked for major bus, train and airport strikes.
The transport workers, led by the Communist-linked CGT, have been joined by teachers and other public sector workers. Sanitation workers protesting in Lyon dumped garbage in front of City Hall in protest.
The center-right government’s pension reform plan would increase the number of years public sector employees must work to receive full retirement benefits, moving from 37.5 years to 40 years. The move would bring them in line with the private sector.
Transport workers would not be affected by the change, but they have led the strikes, claiming that the reform plan is just the beginning of a process that would gut France’s pension system.
Louis Gallois, chief of the SNCF train authority, said SNCF has lost $140 million in six days of strikes since March 18, he said, calling the loss “unbearable.”
“No one is going to come forward to compensate this loss,” he said on Europe-1 radio.
Referring to a new day of strikes set for Tuesday, Gallois called on railroad employees to “look at the consequences.”
The strike Tuesday was expected to shut down vast sections of the country. Several other unions were expected to join the CGT on that day, including many representing Air France employees.
Teachers are also protesting a plan to decentralize the education system, and some occupied train tracks and bus depots on Friday.