San Francisco Frontiers - Pension strike snarls France as unions vow to press protest

Unions have vowed to bring the country to a standstill with strikes over the proposed changes, which include raising the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62 and increasing the number of years people have to make contributions for a full pension.

"We mustn't give up, it's possible to make the government withdraw on 64 years," CFDT union chief Laurent Berger told broadcaster LCI, forecasting "more people" on the streets and warning of future actions if workers' demands were not heard.

President Emmanuel Macron put the pensions plan at the centre of his re-election campaign last year, and his cabinet says the changes are essential to prevent the system from falling into deficit in coming years.

But they face fierce resistance from both parliament and the street, with almost two in three people across the country supporting protests against it, according to a poll by the Elabe survey group published Monday.

Ali Toure, a 28-year-old construction worker, on Tuesday morning was waiting for a delayed train north of Paris, but said it was "no big deal" if he arrived late to work for a month.

"They're right to be striking. Manual labour is hard," he said.

Former left-wing presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon said "the president would be wrong to count on (resistance) wearing out, on people getting exhausted".

"The French people deserve better," he told Le Parisien daily.

The hard-line CGT union said fuel deliveries from refineries across France had been blocked from Tuesday morning, which could see petrol stations running short if the protests continue.

- More than a million expected -

Unions have warned of rolling strikes on public transport that could paralyse parts of the country for weeks on end.

Police expect 1.1 million to 1.4 million people to hit the streets Tuesday in more than 260 locations nationwide, a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The upper limit of that range would mean stronger opposition than during the five previous days of rallies that have taken place since mid-January.

On the unions' side, Frederic Souillot, leader of hard-left union Force Ouvriere, told RTL radio he expected more than two million people to march.

The biggest day of demonstrations so far brought 1.27 million people to the street on January 31, according to official figures.

In the lead-up to Tuesday, unions had promised to bring the country "to a standstill".

Only one in five regional and high-speed trains were expected to run, while a leading trade unionist representing refinery workers has vowed to bring the French economy "to its knees".

School teachers are also to stage walkouts.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told French television Monday that while she respected the right to protest, a nationwide standstill would primarily penalise "the most fragile" among the population.

- 'Need to work longer' -

The government has argued that the changes are crucial to keep France's pensions system from falling into deep deficit in the coming years.

"If we want to keep this system going, we need to work longer," Macron said last month.

But unions contest that conclusion and say small increases in contributions could keep it solvent.

They also argue that the proposed measures are unfair and would disproportionately affect low-skilled workers who start their careers early, as well as women.

According to an Elabe survey, 56 percent of respondents said they supported rolling strikes, and 59 percent backed the call to bring the country to a standstill.

The bill is now being debated in the upper house of parliament, after two weeks of heated debate in the lower house that ended without even reaching a vote on raising the retirement age.

The centrist government is hoping to push through the reform in parliament with help from the right, without resorting to a controversial mechanism that would bypass a parliamentary vote but risk fuelling more protests.

burs-tgb/ah/js

P.Adams--SFF