Paris: France's labour unions called on Monday for another wave of protests and strikes in October and raised the stakes in a showdown with President Nicolas Sarkozy's government over unpopular pension reforms.
Minutes after Prime Minister Francois Fillon said there was no question of a government climbdown, union leaders meeting in Paris called another protest for Saturday October 2, and a follow-up day of strikes and protests on Tuesday, October 12.
Clearly heartened by large street protests for the second time in a month on Thursday, unions issued a statement saying: "Our organisations warn the government of the consequences that ignoring this profound expression of anger could incur."
The unrest mirrors action elsewhere in Europe where indebted governments have cut spending, notably Greece and Spain.
No retreat
Shortly before the unions threw down the gauntlet, Fillon ruled out any retreat on the pension reform, which is currently making its way through parliament and would raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 in 2018.
"Government in France also means knowing how to say ‘No'. We will not withdraw this reform because it's necessary and reasonable," Fillon told members of Sarkozy's UMP party at a conference in the southwestern city of Biarritz.
The Thursday protests put around three million people on the streets according to unions, about one million according to police. Work stoppages and disrupted schooling caused the cancellation of up to 50 per cent of flights at major airports and also affected the country's rail services. Sarkozy has made the pension reform a centrepiece of his legacy. He is widely expected to seek re-election in 2012. To back down would leave his reform in tatters.
Opinion polls suggest a majority of French people support the strike.
