Tuesday, October 12, 2010

France hit by third general strike in just over a month

A one-day general strike in France today 12th Oct'10 – a protest against a pensions reform Bill – could trigger open-ended industrial action at state railway SNCF and at the country’s main container ports.

The Bill, which focuses on raising the minimum retirement age, is being rubber-stamped in the French Senate having already being passed by the Assembly. At SNCF, the strike began at 8pm yesterday and all its unions gave notice that they were ready to stage rolling strikes, renewable from day to day after the general strike ends, if there is no government climb-down on increasing the minimum retirement age.

Its rail freight division, Fret SNCF, has warned customers it expects “serious disruption” to services today, that that could extend into tomorrow. Each day of strike action costs the state operator an estimated €20 million in lost revenue. At the ports, the CGT Ports and Docks Federation has called on its members to intensify action and stage open-ended strikes to get the government to modify the Bill to take into account the physical nature of the work carried out by dockers and crane drivers.

It has already curtailed the length of shifts over the past few weeks and instigated stoppages over the last two weekends . At Marseilles, a separate strike by oil terminal workers has entered its third week, raising fears of fuel shortages in France. Cross-Channel ferry operator SeaFrance said its staff were not strike, but industrial action by port workers at Calais meant vessels were taking longer to dock than usual.

Unions representing SNCF and port workers will convene meetings this evening to vote on prolonging the strike. As for road freight, a senior official of the main union representing French truck drivers, the CFDT, told IFW that while its members had been urged to support today’s general strike, prolonged action was not yet on the agenda.

A spokesman said: “As the pension reform Bill stands, truck drivers who qualify for early retirement will be adversely affected, but we’ll wait and see what comes out of today’s protest before taking a decision next week on whether to engage in action specific to the road haulage sector.” With air traffic controllers also backing today’s strike, the French Civil Aviation Authority has requested that airlines reduce their flight programmes by 30% at Paris Roissy-CDG and by 50% at Paris Orly airports. Air France said it expected to operate all its long-haul flights, but has cancelled some domestic and European services. The French Post Office estimated that around 17% of its staff were on strike this morning.

Source: IFW

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