French students up protests over retirement reform

[October 14, 2010]  PARIS (AP) -- French students intensified blockades of high schools and universities Thursday, as a third straight day of nationwide strikes over the government's retirement reform snarled train travel and shuttered oil refineries.

While the striking students won't reach retirement age for decades, the government is keeping a close eye on how their protests play out. Students have brought down major government reforms in the past and student actions have degenerated into violence.

The country's main university and high school student unions called for nationwide protests Thursday, including in front of France's main employers' lobby, Medef, hoping to carry the momentum of the movement against President Nicolas Sarkozy's push to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. The students and labor unions see the pension reform as an attack on hard-earned social protections.

Sarkozy has stuck firmly by the reform despite this week's protests. The governing conservatives say it is the only way to save the money-losing pension system in a country with a huge budget deficit and sluggish growth. It's a problem governments across Europe are facing, and France's retirement age even with the reform would remain one of the lowest in the rich world.

By midday Thursday, 345 high schools were blockaded or otherwise disrupted by the strikes, or nearly 8 percent of high schools nationwide, according to the Education Ministry. That was up from 135 on Wednesday and 357 on Tuesday.

Universities were also seeing disruptions. The University of Rennes-2 in western France was closed all day "for security reasons" amid student rallies, the university administration announced.

While Paris transit workers were mostly back on the job after strikes earlier this week, the workers of SNCF rail authority continued their walk out for a third day, disrupting TGV and local train traffic. About 20 percent of train employees were on strike Thursday, the SNCF said.

Workers at oil giant Total's six French refineries kept up their protest, and in a statement Wednesday union leaders there said "not one drop of oil" has been produced at the Total plants since Tuesday morning. The refinery blockages have raised worries of possible gasoline shortages.

At least 1.2 million people took to the streets for nationwide protests Tuesday, and another round of nationwide demonstrations is scheduled for Saturday.

Union leaders have vowed to press on with the strikes until the government scraps the reform, but officials have repeatedly pledged not to budge.

France's Senate pushed back a planned vote on the retirement reform bill until next Wednesday to debate some 820 amendments floated by the Socialist-led opposition. It had been scheduled to vote Friday.

[Associated Press; By JEAN-MARIE GODARD]

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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