Thursday, October 18, 2007
France has been plagued by a one day nation wide public transport strike. The strike is to protect a pension system, that approximately 1.6 million workers have. Some unions that are involved in the strike say they may have to continue it for another day. This strike will also test Nicolas Sarkozy the President of France.
The strike is not in the best timing either as France is hosting the final game of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday.
In France 3 out of every 14 subway lines are shut and 1 subway train out of every ten are running. This also could cause problems for airports seeing as some workers might be late to work if the public transportation is not running. Out of the 700 fast trains only 46 are actually being operated meaning a lot less people are getting where they need to go. Bernard Thibault states, "Workers were fed up with being constantly portrayed as privileged or in some way guilty on the issue of pensions."
I think that this strike is a good thing because the workers deserve pensions that they want. Also this strike only lasted for about two days so I think that people can last two days without transportation, but I am sure that some people could find other modes of transportation.
http://voanews.com/english/2007-10-18-voa14.cfm
4 comments:
I think this issue, is being treated fairly becuase no citizen no matter where you are in the world shouldn't have problems going to work over a government being greedy about money. This strike shows how much French citizens care for their rights.
I'm not sure why they are on strike, but transportation is very important worldwide. If workers deny to work for public transportation, a lot of people are going to suffer. They government should take an action to solve this issue
I think what they are doing is fair. I'f I was the transport worker I would be equally mad. Money is an important factor for these people evidently. As it is they don't make a huge amount of salary and taking away their pension in the end could cause their family a great amount of grief.
I am with the workers on this one. It is unfair to try and take away their pension that as was stated 1.6 million workers have. The workers could not have chosen a better time. With the Rugby Game, the government has to act for if they don't, they might leave a bad impression on those rugby fans who came to France to watch the finals.
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