Five Million Civil Servants Join Strikes (in France)

[tekisui]

It's Black Tuesday for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Five million French civil servents have gone out on strike, joining millions of others already on the streets protesting planned reforms.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing his stiffest political test on Tuesday as five million public servants stage a one-day strike. They are joining transport workers who are staying off the job for the seventh straight day. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday that the transport strike was costing the economy between €300 million and €350 million ($440 million and $513 million) a day.

The strikes are causing disruptions to air traffic, postal delivery and even weather forecasts and French people are being forced to forgo their newspapers as printers and distribution employees stay away from work.

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The public servants, meanwhile are protesting the president's plans to drastically down-size the civil service, cutting up to 23,000 jobs in 2008, almost half of which will be in education. Many are also protesting against low wages and the increasing cost of living. The issue of a reduction in "purchasing power" as prices rise is currently a hot issue in France.

As teachers go on strike on Tuesday high-school pupils are expected to join students who have blocked and occupied many universities to protest government attempts to bring in more private investment into education.





When does America learn to strike? Why does it seem so impossible to get 5 million+ American to strike?

link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,518426,00.html