Mardi Noir: France faces 'Black Tuesday' ... Is this President Nicolas Sarkozy's " Thatcher moment"?

[marmar]

from the Independent UK:




Mardi Noir: France faces 'Black Tuesday'
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 20 November 2007


Strikes. Sabotage. Student unrest. Transport, schools and hospitals disrupted. National newspapers halted. Factories running out of raw materials.

France faces a Black Tuesday today. Is this President Nicolas Sarkozy's " Thatcher moment"? Is this another May 1968? Is the New France promised last spring by a combative new president, struggling to emerge from the muddled, but often charming, Old France of street protests, government climbdowns and generous social benefits?

Something is happening across the Channel but how significant the moment will prove to be is unclear. Both President Sarkozy and the more moderate trade union leaders have been trying to avoid a political train-wreck. Some militant unions and transport workers seem to have been determined to provoke one. (According to the state railway company, the SNCF, a fringe of rail workers risked real train crashes yesterday by moving freight locomotives and wagons to obstruct lines and by blocking points with ballast.) A solution to a six-day-old railway and Paris transport strike, over early retirement rights, now seems possible tomorrow. Both government and unions have compromised on the pre-conditions for talks.

At the same time, tens of thousands of other public sector workers – teachers, nurses, air-traffic controllers, postal workers – will go on strike for 24 hours today over pay claims and job cuts. Print workers in Paris walked out last night – in an entirely separate dispute – threatening to block the publication of all national newspapers this morning. A growing protest movement by students, who are opposed to private, extra funding of state universities, spread yesterday to schools for the first time.

There were warnings yesterday of serious damage to the French economy if the transport dispute continues. Fifteen factories are already running short of raw materials, especially steel. In Paris, some restaurants said that they had lost up to €50,000 in turnover since the strike began. One economist estimated the strike had knocked 0.1 per cent off the French GDP this year – the equivalent of €2bn. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3176996.ece

[madrchsod]

1. and we think we have bad days.....

it all started when his wife said --see ya!