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CPF? Sarkozy faces mass protest against raising retirement to 62

uncleyap

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1079486/1/.html

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Posted: 06 September 2010 2035 hrs
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France president Nicolas Sarkozy</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td class="update"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>
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PARIS: French teachers went on strike on Monday following a nationwide general stoppage called by trade unions to oppose President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62.

A third of secondary school teachers did not turn up for work, unions said, but officials said only six percent of them went on strike to protest the slashing of 7,000 jobs in education and other reform plans in the sector.

Teachers and other private and public sector workers were to join protests on Tuesday that unions said would see hundreds of thousands take to the streets to fight pension plans that are a cornerstone of Sarkozy's reforms.

The demonstrations come as the right-wing president limps into the last two years of his first term weakened by scandal and dismal opinion poll ratings.

They are timed to fall on the same day that the French parliament begins debate on a draft pension reform law, which is to be presented by Sarkozy's embattled labour minister Eric Woerth.

The bill would increase France's minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018, which would still leave it low by international standards but would reverse a cherished and emblematic Socialist reform.

"If this week is decisive, it is because Sarkozy, by attacking one of the biggest totems of the left, is also attacking a bygone era when governments thought they could spend without counting," said Le Figaro daily.

CGT union leader Bernard Thibault said he believed that even more people would turn out for the 190 marches planned in cities across France than in June, when more than 800,000 took part in demonstrations.

"We may have an exceptional day and, if it is exceptional, we will perhaps be at a turning point," he told France Inter radio.

Widespread disruption was expected in transport, government, industry, banks and postal services.

Just two out of five TGV high-speed trains were expected to run, with reduced service on many other lines, state railway operator SNCF said. But Eurostar trains between Paris and London were expected to run normally.

An Obea/Infra Forces opinion poll said 73 per cent of French approved of the protest marches. But the poll also showed 65 per cent thought the government would not change course.

Sarkozy hopes to make pension reform the key measure of the final two years of his first mandate and the start of an electoral fightback, but it comes after a politically disastrous summer.

Woerth, the minister tasked with pushing the bill through parliament, has been weakened by a series of allegations surrounding his links to France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

The president has stood by him publicly, and the minister denies any wrongdoing or conflict of interest in his role as ruling party fundraiser, but the scandal rumbles on and several judicial probes are under way.

Sarkozy has also sparked international outrage and incensed the French left and human rights groups with a crackdown on Roma immigrants and threats to strip foreign-born criminals of French citizenship.

Voters tell pollsters they approve of the crackdown, but this has failed to translate into a fillip for Sarkozy's own ratings.

Likewise most voters say they believe pension reform is necessary, but again this fails to translate into improved ratings for the president.

There is little sign Sarkozy is ready to back down, even if his chief of staff Claude Gueant said on Sunday the government would propose amendments to the law this week.

France is running a huge public deficit and government thinks raising the retirement age could save 70 billion euros (US$90 billion) by 2030.

A minimum retirement age of 60 is well under the average of 64 in the OECD group of wealthy industrialised democracies, despite France having one of the world's longest life expectancies. - AFP/fa
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uncleyap

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6860D320100907
UPDATE 1-French unions test Sarkozy in pensions strike


* Unions want 2 million on streets against pension reform
* Rail services hit as strikes start to bite
* Sarkozy government says won't back down on key principles
* Scandal-tainted labour minister to put bill to parliament

By Brian Love
PARIS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - French trade unions mounted a show of strength on Tuesday with strikes backed by street marches over unpopular pension reforms that President Nicolas Sarkozy says he is determined to implement.
Union leaders aimed to put 2 million or more protesters onto the streets in nationwide rallies through the day. Stoppages that disrupted rail and air traffic form early morning were expected to hit schools and hospitals.
Francois Chereque, leader of the large CFDT labour union, told RTL radio the government would be ill-advised to ignore what he expected to be the "biggest turnout in a decade".
"After today it's in the government's hands, It they want things to get better they'd better come up with proposals (for changes to the reform)," he said, adding that a general strike was not to be ruled out if the situation deteriorated.
Analysts said however that even if the unions achieved a massive turnout on Tuesday, it was unlikely they could turn the day of protest into a long-term strike movement capable of forcing the government to back down.
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For more stories on French protests, click [nECONOMYFR]
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Opinion polls show two-thirds of voters think Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 and make people work longer for a pension is unfair and support the day of protest, but two-thirds also think the strikes will make no difference.
"Never in polling history have the French people been so convinced that there's a social injustice," said political analyst Roland Cayrol, from Paris's Sciences Po university.
The conservative government says the reform is essential to balance pension accounts by 2018, reduce the public deficit and preserve France's top-notch AAA credit rating, which helps it to service a big debt as cheaply as possible in financial markets.
The strikes cut rail services by 50 percent and more in many cases but did not hit international links. Urban underground train services were also hit, although less than feared in the early stages of Tuesday, according to the RATP Paris urban transport company.
Dozens of street rallies were programmed, starting with many major cities in the morning before an afteroon march in Paris.
The labour unrest mirrors action in several European countries against austerity measures imposed to reduce budget deficits swollen by the 2008-9 economic crisis. Governments from Greece, Spain, Italy and Romania have faced down strikers to impose painful pay and public spending cuts.
On the eve of what may be the biggest protests since Sarkozy won office in 2007, ministers said the pension bill's key principles were non-negotiable but signalled concessions on secondary issues such as earlier retirement for those in physically demanding jobs or who began work at an early age.
Most major European countries have an official retirement age of 65, and some, such as Germany and Britain, plan to raise it gradually to 67 or beyond. But the real effective retirement age in France is similar to that of its neighbours, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Martine Aubry, head of the opposition Socialists, accused the government of misleading the people about conditions in other countries. She said Germans could secure a full pension after fewer years of work than the French and that her party would, if in power, revert to a legal retirement age of 60.

MINOR CONCESSIONS POSSIBLE
With Sarkozy's approval ratings close to all-time lows, the president's two top advisers hinted on Sunday he may amend a widely-criticised "tax shield", enacted to ensure the wealthy do not pay more than 50 percent of their income to the state.
While the protesters march, Labour Minister Eric Woerth, battered by a scandal over alleged conflicts of interest and illegal political donations, will introduce the pension reform in parliament, which is due to adopt the bill next month.
Sarkozy has stood by Woerth despite a string of disclosures about his links with France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and her wealth manager, Patrice de Maistre. The minister has denied wrongdoing and refused to resign.
However, the scandal has weakened his position and helped drive protests against the pension bill, seen as Sarkozy's flagship reform and the springboard for his bid for re-election in 2012.
France has a tradition of militancy although only about 10 percent of workers, mostly in the public sector, are unionised. A 1995 revolt forced former President Jacques Chirac to abandon planned pension and healthcare reforms, and 2006 student protests killed plans for a low-wage youth employment contract.
But the mood is different now, with many people accepting the notion that longer life expectancy and weaker public finances make a raising of the retirement age inevitable.
"Unlike 1995, when similar numbers took to the streets, there isn't the feeling (this time) that they can win somthing out of it," said Sciences Po analyst Cayrol. (additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, editing by Ralph Boulton)
 

Balls2U

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But when old fart said that there should be no minimum retirment age, what do Sinkies do? N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!! :mad:
 

Cruxx

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Loyal
But when old fart said that there should be no minimum retirment age, what do Sinkies do? N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!! :mad:

Why must sinkies do anything? They don't even know why there's such a thing called "minimum retirement age".
 
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