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Hundreds of thousands protest Sarkozy's pension reforms (Roundup)
By DPA
May 22, 2008, 17:40 GMT

Paris - Hundreds of thousands of French workers took to the streets and many railway and public transport workers stayed away from their jobs on Thursday to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's planned pension reforms.

According to trade unions, more than 700,000 people took part in street demonstrations in 153 cities and towns to demand that the government scrap its plans to increase the period of pension contributions of state employees from 40 to 41 years.

The largest demonstration took place in Paris, where some 70,000 people protested, organizers said. Police figures for the number of protestors in Paris and the nation were, as usual, substantially lower.

In addition, French railway and public transport workers took part in a 36-hour strike that disrupted national train service and public transportation in more than 50 cities.

Only about one of two scheduled trains ran nationwide, with two of three high-speed TGV's operating as scheduled, the national rail service SNCF said.

In addition, public transportation in France's second-largest city, Marseille, was badly disrupted, with one of three buses and one of two metro lines operating.

The strike also affected public transportation in Lyon and Strasbourg, but trains and buses ran normally in Paris.

Some airports experienced delays and cancelled flights because of the strike, but the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) said that traffic remained close to normal at Paris's two major airports.

Union leaders had counted on the demonstrations to impress upon the government with the depth of feeling against the planned reform.

'You will see... that we will have confirmation, notably by the size of the demonstrations, that the government must alter its plans,' the head of the CGT trade union, Bernard Thibault, told France 2 television on Thursday.

'Our aim is to have the maximum number of workers express their disapproval,' he added. 'The aim is not to have everyone on strike today.'

However, it is unlikely that the government will budge in its determination to cut the state's budget deficit.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon told France 2 television late Wednesday that he would be 'very attentive' to what occurs on Thursday, but that 'the issue was decided in 2003 and that the increase to 41 years (of pension contributions) was established by an agreement.'

But because Sarkozy and his government plan to carry out more wide-ranging reforms later this year, they may be forced to negotiate some form of compensation to get unions to agree, much as they did in eliminating the special pension rights of certain public-sector workers late last year.