France braces for strikes Thursday to protest reforms to pension system

France braces for day of strikes Thursday

PARIS — Protesters are counting on people power to pressure the government to back down on its plan to up the retirement age from 60 to 62, with a second round of September strikes expected to hobble public transport, air traffic and schools across France.

Workers at the state-run train system, the SNCF, started their strike Wednesday evening, at 1700 GMT, getting an overnight headstart on other sectors that plan to walk off the job Thursday.

Union organizers hope to put more people in the streets — and off the job — than on Sept. 7, when at least 1.1 million people turned out to oppose President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to increase the retirement age in order to save the deficit-ridden pension system. As many as 231 protest marches are planned nationwide.

The strikes are seen as a test for the conservative Sarkozy. He has indicated he is willing to make marginal concessions but remains firm on the central point: increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 and pushing back the age from 65 to 67 for those who want to ensure full retirement benefits.

As baby boomers reach retirement age and life expectancy increases, the government insists it is necessary to raise the retirement age so the pension system can break even by 2018.

The SNCF announced that one in two fast trains during the strike will be canceled, with regional services also only at 50 percent. The Eurostar to London was not expected to be affected and the Thalys train from Belgium was expeted to be only slightly hit, with nine in 10 trains running.

Paris commuters can expect uneven service in the Metro and long waits on suburban lines.

Many air travelers will be out of luck, with major disturbances expected in air traffic. Only 50 percent of flights operating out of Orly Airport, south of Paris, are expected to take off and 40 percent at the French capital’s main airport, Charles de Gaulle, civil aviation authorities said. Other French airports also were expected to slow the pace as air traffic controllers join in the strike movement.

The main teachers union said more than one teacher in two would not show up for class.

“If the government remains deaf, we won’t stop at this,” said the head of the moderate CFDT union, Francois Chereque, in an interview in Wednesday’s Le Parisien daily. “We are a lasting movement,” he said.

Some unions at the SNCF railway have already called for new strike to continue beyond Thursday.

Even the Paris Opera is being hit by the job action. It announced Wednesday that a performance at the Garnier theater would be held in costumes but without scenery while the house would be dark at the Bastille Opera — on the site of the start of Thursday’s Paris march.