As France faces second week of strikes, pro-Sarkozy group stages counter-protest

As France faces second week of strikes, pro-Sarkozy group stages counter-protest

Unions planned to continue nationwide transport strikes for a sixth day Monday despite signs the movement was losing steam and heading toward negotiations. The strikers are protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's bid to scrap their early retirement rights, a reform seen as pivotal to his broader plans to overhaul the French economy.

Facing the prospect of a second week of strikes, a group calling itself Liberte Cherie, or Beloved Liberty, responded with its own "Stop the Strike" demonstration Sunday.

The group, though marginal, drew some 8,000 people to its march in eastern Paris, according to police estimates.

While that is nothing like the masses that turn out for union-organized events, the anti-strike group's point is popular: Polls indicate that the French are siding with Sarkozy over the pension reform.

"Liberate the Metro!" chanted the marchers, a mix of students and middle-aged Sarkozy supporters bundled against a damp, biting cold.

"Papa is Tired: Stop Making him Walk" read a sign carried by one little boy perched atop his father's shoulders.

The strike has tangled the nationwide train network and Paris public transport since Tuesday night, though service has gradually increased.

On Monday, about 300 high-speed TGV trains out of a usual 700 were expected to run, the SNCF rail authority said. On the Paris Metro, just one train in five was expected to be running, with some subway lines and commuter train lines shut entirely and just 40 percent of buses in circulation.

Transport unions are hoping to carry their momentum until Tuesday, when hospital, school and other public sector workers plan their own strikes over planned job cuts.

At a meeting Sunday, six leading unions agreed in principle to a proposal by the SNCF management for talks Wednesday on the pension reform. The train drivers themselves — who have been tougher than the union leadership — will consider the proposal Monday morning.

The key question is whether the government would join Wednesday's talks. Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand praised the unions for agreeing to talks, but reiterated calls for strikers to return to work before negotiations can begin.

"There are things that are moving, that are unlocking, but not fast enough for my taste," he said after a meeting with Sarkozy on Sunday.

One union, CFDT, has already called for its members to return to work, and another, CFTC, suggested Sunday that it could soon do the same. The larger unions, however, were holding out.

For Sarkozy's leftist opponents, the retirement reform is a symbol of what they see as a greater threat to the social and labor protections that have underpinned France's economy for decades.

For Sunday's marchers, those protections and what they called the "dictatorship of the unions" are holding France back.

"All of France is suffering because of a few strikers," said Liberte Cherie organizer Guillaume Vuillemey.

The anti-strike march was unusually patriotic for a French protest, and resembled rallies staged by far-right groups, with some singing the Marseillaise and many waving French flags.

French commuters have long been accustomed to strikes and have tried-and-true methods worked out for coping with transport walkouts: car pooling, bicycling, inline skating, working from home or taking a day off. Those methods will be put to the test again this week.

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Associated Press writers Pierre-Yves Roger and Greg Roudier contributed to this report.