French Transit Workers Strike Over Pension Threat

PARIS, Oct. 18 -- French public transportation workers staged a strike on Thursday, bringing most rail, bus and subway service across the country to a standstill and delivering a vivid warning to President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose plans to reduce generous but costly public pensions face stiff opposition from labor unions.

While the strike virtually immobilized public transportation -- only 10 percent of the Paris Metro system was running, and only 46 of France's 700 high-speed trains were in operation -- the country escaped the mass chaos that many had predicted. Some city residents speculated that Parisians, warned of the possibility of huge commuting delays and virtually no public transportation, simply decided to take the day off.

Taxi drivers said they were doing a brisk business; bicycles from the city's new bike rental company were out in force. And many people, taking advantage of a sunny fall day, reverted to ancestral type: They walked.

"It's a wee bit annoying, but we're spending most of our time standing in queues anyway," said Terry Fergusson, 44, a tourist from Auckland, New Zealand, who was near the end of a 100-yard-long line at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

David Rocaboy, 27, a sound technician, said strikes in France were so commonplace that most Parisians took them in stride, canceling meetings and staying close to home. "Parisians are used to dealing with this," he said.

Sarkozy, who took office in May, campaigned as a reform candidate, promising radical changes to the French system of cradle-to-grave welfare. He frequently said that the French needed to work harder, and he vowed to cut state payrolls and offer incentives for people to work longer than the legally enshrined 35-hour week.

The strikes launched Thursday, which some unions vowed to extend through Friday, were called by labor leaders to protest a proposal to change pension laws that currently allow some categories of public employees to retire after 37 1/2 years of service, as opposed to 40 years for other workers. The special pensions cost French taxpayers about $7 billion a year.

A survey released Thursday by the polling company IFOP found that 82 percent of respondents thought the special pension system needed to be changed.

"This is an opening salvo," said political analyst Nicole Bacharan. "A majority elected Sarkozy to change these kinds of rules, and the unions are checking after he's had a few months in power to see the level of satisfaction and whether the balance is shifting towards protests, but so far I think the support is on the presidential side."

That view was echoed by Gildes Martin, 29, a physical education instructor who said he feared that teachers, who also enjoy liberal benefits and short workweeks, could be Sarkozy's next target.

"This is the first strike between Sarkozy and the workers, and it won't be the last," he said. "There will be a lot more."

On Tuesday, Sarkozy seemed untroubled by the strike threat, saying he was honoring his campaign pledges.

"People would be more worried if we didn't carry out the reforms," he said. "That's what I was elected for."