FRANCE: Paris strikers hold out ahead of French pension vote

Record ID: 339443

  • Title: FRANCE: Paris strikers hold out ahead of French pension vote
  • Date: 28th October 2010
  • Summary: GRANDPUITS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 27, 2010) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) VARIOUS OF WORKERS VOTING TO CONTINUE STRIKE AT GRANDPUITS REFINERY OUTSIDE PARIS (SOUNDBITE) (French) REFINERY WORKER SAYING "Here at Grandpuits, we're still out. Just because we've got requisitioned workers and fuel it doesn't mean the refinery has resumed work. I want to say this in front of all the medi
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TUAO0D3SUJQCE0BPBXA7AUW0
  • Story Text: Workers at a major refinery outside Paris voted on Wednesday (October 27) to stay on strike over a controversial pension reform bill -- only hours ahead of a final vote on the measure in parliament.
    Employees at Grandpuits refinery voted to stay out early on Wednesday morning, even as their colleagues returned to work at five of France's 12 refineries and blockades at fuel dumps lifted across the country.
    "Here at Grandpuits, we're still out. Just because we've got requisitioned workers and fuel it doesn't mean the refinery has resumed work," one refinery worker told a cheering crowd.
    But fuel was flowing out of the refinery's emergency stocks on Wednesday, leaving in tankers under the watchful eye of the police.
    And in Paris there was little trace of the long queues outside petrol stations that have swept the country over past weeks.
    On the forecourts, motorists were relieved that fuel supplies could be returning to normal after weeks of wildcat actions and occasional riots created shortages across France.
    "This is the first pump, and got gas straightaway. So there you go. Yes, I'm relieved," said one motorist.
    The final parliamentary signoff on President Nicholas Sarkozy's controversial bill to increase the country's retirement age from 60 to 62 was expected to take place around 1440 GMT.
    The upper house of parliament voted 177 in favour versus 151 against the last version of the text on Tuesday -- and it is due to be put to the lower house on Wednesday for a tense last vote of approval.
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