The euro wankers are in the vortex of the drain of the Big Crapper .....it is now Eurabia
-Sarkozy faces down French unions on pension age rise

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By John Irish

PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy faced down French trade unions on Wednesday, refusing to back down on plans to raise the retirement age despite Tuesday's nationwide protests against pension reform.

In a statement issued shortly before unions were due to decide on possible further protests, Sarkozy said he was asking his government to make some amendments to the pension reform bill, but the rise in the minimum pensionable age would stay.

"There is no question of going back on this," Sarkozy said. "... working a little longer is the most reasonable path."

Union leaders have warned of an escalation after strikes and massive street marches on Tuesday against the rise in the legal minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, rallying support as a workers' fears grow about austerity across Europe.

Sarkozy said he would ask ministers to adjust the pension reform bill before parliament, which also raises to 67 from 65 the age at which people are entitled to retire on a full pension in a plan to balance the system's finances by 2020.

However, rather than affecting the bill's chief elements, the changes would accommodate complaints about the impact on people in particularly gruelling jobs, those who started working very early in life, and people relying on many different pensions schemes.

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The tone of Sarkozy's statement suggested that he is ready to give ground on non-core issues, but he is also willing to face down the unions on what many consider the hallmark reform of his five-year presidency. He faces elections in early 2012.

SHOWDOWN

Jean-Claude Mailly, leader of the Force Ouvriere union -- the most radical of the unions on the issue -- said before Sarkozy even made his announcement that he was pessimistic about the government's willingness to backtrack. "It's a showdown," he told France Info radio. "The bill must be totally rewritten."

The government has repeatedly said it will stand firm on what it considers the essential points. "When some people say the reform must be withdrawn -- that's simply not possible," Xavier Bertrand, head of Sarkozy's ruling UMP party said.

The government unveiled the reform bill in June. Without the changes, the pay-as-you-go pension system would run up annual deficits of 100 billion euros ($128 billion) by 2050, it says.

Heartened by the biggest strikes since 2003, the unions were set to meet on Wednesday at 1400 (noon GMT).

They say Tuesday's protests in well over 100 cities drew a turnout of 2.5-2.7 million people while the official count is 1.12 million. Either way, the turnout was significantly bigger than for a previous protest in June and big enough for unions to try to press their case further.

The protests and strikes halved national rail services, disrupted underground train services in Paris and led to cancellation of a quarter of flights at Paris airports.

Francois Chereque, head of the large CFDT union, has floated the possibility of further protests on Sept. 15, the day the reform bill is due to go to a first vote in the lower house of parliament.

Another possibility is Sept. 18, which being a Saturday could help to muster more support from private sector employees who are generally more reluctant to strike.

With the government aiming to pass the reform before the end of October, it leaves the unions little time to manoeuvre.

Opinion polls show two-thirds of voters think Sarkozy's plan is unfair, but two-thirds think strikes will make no difference.

"There is no question of letting anybody distort the reform, as it would imperil the rebalancing of our pensions," Sarkozy said.

Victory to the French people!

S.

The cheese eating surrender monkeys

Loser



http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101110/D9JD8EK00.html