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French strikes and fuel shortages eat into economy
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An emergency flare silhouettes a striking employee during a blockade by dockers and refinery workers at the entrance of a fuel depot in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, October 25, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Philippe Laurenson
By Nick Vinocur
PARIS |
Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:17am EDT
PARIS (Reuters) - Fuel shortages persisted at petrol pumps across France on Monday and the government said strikes against an unpopular pension reform were costing 200-400 million euros per day in lost production.
Hardline unionists at nine of France's 12 refineries voted to continue their strikes but workers at the other three plants chose to end their walkouts after the Senate passed the reform on Friday.
The impact of strikes also eased in other sectors, with traffic running near normal on regional trains and the Eurostar line days after hundreds of thousands of French families began leaving for a 12-day school holiday.
Economy Minister Christine Lagarde estimated the cost of the strikes at 200-400 million euros a day, while one small business association estimated that 4 billion euros had been lost.
"The attractiveness of the (French) territory is in the balance when you see images like these," Lagarde told Europe 1 radio after returning from a G20 summit in South Korea.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity rating is near an all-time low, has vowed not to give any ground to the strikers as he seeks to prove that France can take tough measures to bring its deficit under control.
Sarkozy has sent police to break up fuel depot blockades, tapped into strategic reserves and boosted imports to offset shortages. On Monday, oil lobby UFIP said all fuel depot blockades had been lifted.
While strikes appeared to be easing, there was no let-up in Marseille where simultaneous strikes by port workers and garbage collectors have left trash piled in the streets and over 50 oil tankers idle in the Mediterranean.
"The rubbish collectors absolutely have to start working again," Jean-Claude Gaudin, the city's mayor and member of the ruling UMP party, told the city council. "We need to put an end to this dramatic situation for Marseille."
ECONOMISTS DIVIDED OVER IMPACT
Despite the fact that both houses of parliament have now approved the bill, unions are preparing to hold two more days of protest on October 28 and November 6. Students are also set to march in a separate day of protests on Tuesday.
Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo sought to reassure people as the school holiday got under way, saying the fuel situation would return to normal "within days," although he declined to offer a precise time frame.
The government will also crack down on petrol station managers who have profited from the shortage by hiking prices.
A parliamentary committee has agreed on a revised text for the bill, including amendments made by the Senate, which the upper and lower houses are expected to approve this week.
Small businesses still fragile from the recession have fared worst during weeks of striking against the reform. France's top industrial group MEDEF requested on Sunday a moratorium on social charges for hard-hit companies.
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