It's Discount Week! 🎁 Pick up new Marketplace gear at a discount when you donate today! Get My Gear!

French commuters won’t back up strike

Marketplace Staff Nov 19, 2007

TEXT OF STORY

Scott Jagow: If you’re commute is a little rough this morning, just take a moment and think of Paris. Traffic was backed up for 150 miles around the city today because of this transit strike. Rail workers have been off the job for six days now. They’re protesting changes to their pension system.

President Sarkozy says the special retirement benefits are a privilege that France can’t afford right now. And the French people are starting to turn on the strikers. John Laurenson reports from the gridlock.


John Laurenson: Ten thousand people marched in Paris yesterday chanting “Stop the Strike” and “Let Us Work.” Commuters are exasperated by almost a week of transport gridlock, which French railways says has already cost them $150 million. Unions agreed to begin negotiations Wednesday.

The number of strikers has fallen by almost half since the strike began, but the unions believe their movement could snowball this week. Civil servants worried about job cuts will go on strike tomorrow.

Strikers are not winning the public sympathy that played such a crucial role the last time a government tried reforming the French economy a little over a decade ago. An opinion poll out today shows support for reform has increased, and support for the strike has decreased over the past week.

In Paris, I’m John Laurenson for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.