Civil service workers strike in France

November 20, 2007

Civil service workers walked off the job on the seventh day of a nationwide rail-workers strike in France.

At least 30 percent of civil servants were on strike.

PARIS -- France was crippled by mass strikes Tuesday as civil service workers walked out on the seventh day of a nationwide rail-workers strike.

Doctors, nurses, teachers, air-traffic controllers, postal workers, tax officials and the staffs of France Telecom SA and the Bank of France were among public sector employees walking off their jobs in a one-day protest for pay raises and against planned pension changes.

At least 30 percent of civil servants were on strike, the government said.

Newspapers were not available as printers and delivery workers, who are not civil servants, also struck to protest job cuts.

But despite increased pressure, President Nicolas Sarkozy said sweeping economic overhauls announced earlier this year must go through, Britain's Sky News reported.

The rail-workers' strike against plans to change their "special" pension system, which lets them retire 2 1/2 years earlier than other union workers, is costing the country nearly $600 million a day, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said.

In addition, students disrupted classes in half the country's 85 universities, protesting a law giving universities the right to raise money from private companies.