France faces more travel misery

France faces more travel misery

France faces a second day of travel chaos as transport unions continue a strike in protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms. Rail and bus services were crippled in Wednesday's action, and more than 50,000 people rallied in Paris against Mr Sarkozy's plans.
The president later called for a speedy end to the strike, saying conditions for talks with the unions had been met. Germany also faces rail disruption, as train drivers strike over a pay demand. Passenger train drivers joined freight drivers, who had started strike action on Wednesday.
Deutsche Bahn says it will not make a new pay offer, and drivers' unions have raised the prospect of open-ended strikes.

Breakthrough hopes
In France, fewer than 25% of trains and only 90 of the 700 high-speed TGVs ran normally on Wednesday, while just one in five trains on the Paris metro and only 15% of bus services operated.
'SPECIAL' PENSIONS
Benefits 1.6m workers, including 1.1m retirees
Applies in 16 sectors, of which rail and utilities employees make up 360,000 people
Account for 6% of total state pension payments
Shortfall costs state 5bn euros (£3.5bn; $6.9bn) a year
Some workers can retire on full pensions aged 50
Awarded to Paris Opera House workers in 1698 by Louis XIV
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Commuters across the country were forced to find other ways to get to work - car sharing, cycling or roller blading along traffic-choked roads.
However, hopes of a breakthrough were raised on Wednesday evening after Mr Sarkozy said conditions for talks had been created. "The president of the republic has always considered there is more to be gained for all parties in negotiation than in conflict," said Mr Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon. Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand held a series of meetings with the unions, whose leaders signalled their readiness to make a deal. Jacques Voisin, head of the CFTC union, said after meeting the minister: "Let's not waste any time... let's negotiate."
Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, appeared to retreat from a previous demand for national talks by saying he would accept negotiations on a company-by-company basis.
But six rail and four metro unions later voted to continue the action for at least another 24 hours.

'Special' pensions
The open-ended strike began on Tuesday night and follows a previous walkout on 18 October.
It is not clear if energy workers will continue to strike on Thursday, although they have voted to continue a blockade of the liquefied natural gas terminal at Fos-sur-Mer to Friday.
The last time a French government tried to overhaul "special" pensions was in 1995 and it sparked three weeks of strikes that forced then-President Jacques Chirac to climb down. But the polls have so far broadly supported Mr Sarkozy, who says France can no longer afford to let some public service employees retire on a full pension as early as 50.