A nationwide one-day strike gripped France yesterday, spreading transport woes and dealing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin his first major test in implementing labor and economic reforms.
In the capital only around a third of suburban train services were running, and there were some cancelations on the bus and metro system -- but overall there was less disruption than expected.
The capital's transport authority last year put in place a system of "guaranteed service" in case of strikes, which appeared to be working.
PHOTO: EPA
France's civil aviation authority predicted that 175 short and medium-haul flights would be canceled from Orly airport south of Paris and 212 from Roissy Charles de Gaulle. No disruptions were expected on long-haul flights.
The situation was worse in other cities such as Marseille and Bordeaux, however, where most public transport was out of action.
The SNCF national rail company said that 40 percent of regional services were up and running as well as 60 percent of high-speed TGV intercity lines.
As well as transport workers, around half of teachers were also striking, and most post offices and government buildings and some banks remained shut. Most national newspapers failed to appear.
Five of the country's biggest trade unions called the stoppage to protest policies Villepin's center-right government has brought in to invigorate France's sluggish economy and to push for public sector pay rises.
Demonstrations were planned in more than 140 towns and cities, with the largest leaving the Place de la Republique in Paris during the afternoon.
The unions behind the day of action were boosted by a poll showing they have the support of most of the French, who have already showed their dissatisfaction with President Jacques Chirac by rejecting a referendum in May to adopt a European constitution.
Villepin, 51, a suave and popular politician who gained an international profile during his time as foreign minister during the build-up to the Iraq War, was named by Chirac to lead the government following the referendum's failure.
Given the tough task of reducing 10-percent unemployment, he soon earned criticism from unions and left-wing parties for pushing through by decree a series of measures designed to make France's sclerotic labor market more flexible.
One of those -- a new job contract which gives small businesses a freer hand to hire and fire -- is the focus of much of the protesters' ire amid fears that it might bring an end to France's job-for-life culture.
The strike comes at a sensitive time for Villepin, who has been rocked onto the back foot by a crisis over the privatization of the state-owned SNCM ferry company serving Corsica and north Africa from ports on the Mediterranean coast.
Plans to sell off the heavily-indebted concern sparked days of violence in Corsica, a near-blockade of the island, and the shut-down of France's largest port of Marseille. Though action was taken over the weekend to re-open communications, the situation remained highly volatile.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS