(The New York Times’ website posted the following Associated Press article on May 12.)
PARIS — Parisians biked, walked and rode scooters to work on Tuesday as transport workers went on strike across the country. Minimal service by air traffic controllers and trains forced numerous travelers to cancel trips.
The strike was a bid to force Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to readdress his plans to reform the retirement system, which is at risk of collapse if adjustments are not made.
Raffarin has said the strikes would not sway his determination, and government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said the walkouts provide an occasion for officials to further explain the pension reform.
“Explain …. It’s the key word for us in government on this day,” Cope said. “If we don’t carry out this reform, the system will collapse.”
The daylong strike was not limited to the transport sector. Teachers, post office workers, and employees of some private sector companies also walked off the job. With no delivery service, newspapers also fell victim to the “day of action.”
Scores of French cities were hobbled by the strike, and more than 100 demonstrations were planned throughout the country, according to France-Info radio.
In Paris, demonstrators were marching across the city from the Place de la Republique to the Left Bank square Denfert-Rochereau.
Metro and bus service was severely hobbled from Bordeaux in the southwest to Strasbourg in the eastern Alsace region. In Paris, where urban transport was severely disrupted, people took to the streets.
One in three TGV fast trains was running, but numerous destinations went without service, France-Info said. Despite what looked to be a particularly tough strike, the Eurostar train service to London was reported running normally.
Air France said over the weekend that it would be forced to cut short- and medium-haul flights by 65 percent Tuesday. However, its long-haul flights were to run normally.
With only minimal service at control towers, other airlines made deep cuts in their service.
The center-right prime minister has stood firm on his pension reform plans, saying a bill would go to Parliament before summer vacation at the start of July.
He has said he would not be intimated by demonstrations or strikes. However, the government plans to take up new talks on the reform package with various sectors starting Wednesday.
An effort to revamp the retirement system in 1995 triggered a wave of strikes that lasted some three weeks.