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More Strikes as France Debates Pension Reform
EFL, Chirac: Apres Moi, Le Deluge; Continuation of yesterday's posts
PARIS - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin presented a politically sensitive pension reform bill to parliament Tuesday, as striking public sector workers gridlocked much of the country in protest. Tens of thousands marched through Paris and other cities calling for unions to have a say in any reform, as the third nationwide strike in a month slashed public transport services and caused huge traffic jams.
Holding a sign and hollering is a lot easier than working...
Unions are seething at plans to make people pay into the pension system for longer to counter a financing crunch as the postwar "baby boom" generation retires. "With the demographic changes, there are fewer and fewer paying into the system and more and more taking money out of it. This is a necessary reform and everybody knows it," Raffarin told the National Assembly lower house of parliament. "Without reform we will need 43 billion euros in 2020 and more than double that in 2040 to save our pension system. This reform will already produce 18 billion euros."

Tuesday's strike — joined by postal, bank, port and telecoms workers, hospital staff and police — caps a week of sporadic transport chaos in the capital. A fifth of the country's teachers also walked out.
Posted by: Frank G 2003-06-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15298