French transport network to face severe disruption due to new strikes and protests

[News_Editor]

French transport network to face severe disruption due to new strikes and protests

2010-10-12 07:16:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- French union member strikers on Monday announced that more demonstrations against the government's pension reform bill will take place this week which will affect the country's transport network.

According to France24, transport workers intend to disrupt train and air travel next Tuesday as the streets will witness the fifth public demonstration against the legislation which was proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

On Friday, the French Senate approved the measure of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, one of the proposals of the pension reform bill. The measure was passed after a long debate by a 186 to 153 vote.

That same day, union leaders announced that an unlimited strike will begin in protest the following Tuesday. Local polls showed that 61 percent of the people support the unlimited strike and 69 percent were in favor of Tuesday's strike.

On Sunday, Paris' RATP urban transport network informed that the metro would be affected as well as the suburban trains. The following day, the French civil aviation authority informed that flights will be cut by 50 percent at Paris' Orly airport and by 30 percent at CDG-Roissy and Beauvais airports.

Also on Monday, the French Senate will vote on another measure of the bill: the increase of the age for full pension from 65 to 67. The rest of the measures will be discussed later as the French government expects the whole reform to be passed by the end of the month.

French unions also informed that a further day of protest against the reform will take place on October 16. The last demonstration took place last Friday when most of the nation's commercial ports were closed by French strikers. As of Monday, the port strikes in southern France continue.

So far, France has witnessed two nationwide protests against the reform. The last one took place on September 23, when hundreds of thousands of French workers went on a strike for 24 hours.

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