France strikes over Sarkozy's management

http://www.welt.de/english-news/article3404575/France-strikes-over-Sarkozys-management.html
Over one million protesters took part in over 200 protests across France Thursday on behalf of the eight workers unions in the second round of strikes and rallies opposing President Nicolas Sarkozy's approach to the economic crisis. Sarkozy has refused to contemplate union demands for pay hikes or job protection.

Opinion polls show around 75 percent of French voters support the strikes, a considerable challenge for President Nicolas Sarkozy (center)
More than a million protesters are expected to take to the streets of France on Thursday in a second round of strikes and rallies called to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis.
Sarkozy, battling to contain a budget deficit that has ballooned dramatically as billions of euros have been poured into bailing out banks and carmakers, has refused to contemplate union demands for pay hikes or job protection.
In a sign of the protest taking hold, energy workers cut off 10,000 megawatts of French electricity production capacity overnight, including 14 percent of nuclear capacity in 11 different plants, the CGT union said.

The strike is also likely to cut refining output and block Marseille's oil port.
The demonstrations against the government's handling of the economic crisis follow a day of protest on Jan. 29 that was joined by up to 2.5 million people and gave fresh confidence to a union movement written off by Sarkozy just months before.
The unions are counting on a massive turnout to force him to give way. Opinion polls show around 75 percent of French voters support the strikes.
"I cannot believe that the government will stay immobile in the face of a phenomenon of this size," Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT union, told France 2 television.
Trains, buses, airports, schools and government offices will all be hit, with workers venting their anger about surging unemployment and the high cost of living in the euro zone's second largest economy.
"A very strong sense of injustice is building up," Jean-Claude Mailly, head of the Force Ouvriere Union said. "I think the government will find it hard to ignore us."
The unions have presented a long list of demands, including a boost to the lower salaries, more measures to protect employment, a tax hike for high earners and a halt to planned job cuts in the public sector.
FRUSTRATION
The government has introduced a 26 billion euro ($34 billion) stimulus plan aimed at business investment and after the Jan. 29 strike Sarkozy offered 2.65 billion euros of additional aid to help vulnerable households weather the storm.
But Sarkozy and business leaders are clearly concerned about the social climate in France, which has a culture of street protests, with disputes flaring across the political landscape.
Union leaders have also warned that widespread social discontent risked spilling over uncontrollably and going beyond normal industrial protests.
"I think that in many places there are the ingredients where anger and frustration can replace classical union action," Didier Le Reste, head of the rail workers section of the CGT told Radio Classique.
Underlining the tensions, workers at a tyre factory in northern France pelted managers with eggs after they were told it was closing and staff at a Sony plant in the southwest locked up their bosses for a night to demand more redundancy cover.
With its large public sector and generous welfare system, France is better placed than many to ride out the economic storm, but it is nonetheless taking a hit, with many analysts predicting that the economy will contract by 2 percent this year and unemployment jump 25 percent to almost 10 percent.
The crisis has already forced Sarkozy to water down his domestic reform agenda and he is facing pressure to undo some of his original moves, including a "fiscal shield" that allowed the rich to pay no more than 50 percent of their income on taxes.
Earlier this year, the government initially refused to budge during a general strike on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, but after a six-week stand off it finally caved in and agreed to a 200 euro hike in minimum monthly wages.