- Title: FRANCE: Union heads vow to fight on over pension reform
- Date: 29th October 2010
- Summary: LYON, FRANCE (OCTOBER 28, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRAINS AND CROWDED PLATFORMS (SOUNDBITE) (French) (UNIDENTIFIED) MAN, SAYING "I think we'll continue to fight and see what happens. Even if nothing happens, one needs to continue to fight a little." VARIOUS OF COMMUTERS GETTING ONTO TRAIN
- Embargoed: 13th November 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Employment,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA2X8S24URGOL9DVPQQQQ3OCEC1
- Story Text: Protests across France over plans to raise the retirement age appeared to be dying out on Thursday (October 28), a day after parliament adopted pension reform legislation.
While the country's two main unions vowed to continue their fight, they acknowledged people were tiring of a month of strikes that came close to paralysing the entire nation.
"Even now it's been voted, the workers are saying 'no' to pension reform," the leader of the Force Ouvriere (FO) Union, Jean-Claude Mailly, said before adding: "We have to be clear that today we won't go above the three million demonstrators mark. It's the holidays, there's a bit of fatigue -- that's obvious. But in any case it shows that it's sticking in their throat, it's sticking in our throat."
"People are worn down, people are fatigued," Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) union leader Bernard Thibault echoed. He told Europe 1 radio station, "there is the weight on peoples' purchasing power after so many days of strikes -- we realise that but despite all those difficulties, despite the dominating message that there's no alternative, the disgruntlement is real and legitimate."
In Lyon, one man said "I think we'll continue to fight and see what happens. Even if nothing happens, one needs to continue to fight a little."
A Parisian man disagreed, saying "I think they've got to stop now. Otherwise public opinion won't stand for it."
Thursday marked the seventh day of protests called by the unions over the plans to make people work two years longer for a pension.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says the legislation to raise the minimum and full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 is vital to rein in a ballooning pension shortfall and safeguard the AAA credit rating that lets France service its debt at the lowest market rates.
The bill received the final vote of approval in parliament on Wednesday.
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