Oil refinery workers, high school students, rail workers and other protesters sought to maintain pressure on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms, which face a key Senate vote expected Wednesday. Truck drivers used vans to slow traffic on highways around Paris and cities like Lille, Rennes and Lyon, but they did not use fleets of large trucks to block roads.
Wider strikes will hit everything from air travel to mail on Tuesday when unions opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy will start a massive street protest against the unpopular pension bill. The proposed reforms include provisions to raise the French retirement age from age 60 to 62.
A majority of French people -- 71 percent in one poll -- back protests over the plan to raise the minimum and the full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 respectively, a move the government says is vital to stem a soaring pension deficit.
This could be a make-or-break week for Sarkozy. The center-right government assured the public infrastructure will not freeze up despite a week-long strike at refineries that has dried up supplies at hundreds of France's roughly 12,500 gas stations.
"The situation is critical," a spokeswoman at Exxon Mobil said. "Anyone looking for diesel in the Paris and Nantes (Western France) regions will have problems."
Sarkozy, in the northern seaside town of Deauville for talks with the leaders of Germany and Russia, said he will not back down. "The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it just as our German partners did," he told
reporters after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Only 13 percent of rail workers kept up a week long strike on Monday but workers at France's 12 refineries were in their seventh day of a strike and protesters blocked access at many fuel distribution depots around the country.
The UFIP oil industry lobby has said France will probably see serious fuel supply problems by mid-week-The DGAC aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights to Paris's Orly airport by 50 percent and to all other airports by 30 percent on Tuesday.
Government ministers stressed the country has plenty of fuel and that airports in particular have ample supply. "The government is in control," Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said.
As many as 1,800 service stations have run short of fuel in recent days. A body representing supermarket fuel stations said 500-1,000 were hit on Monday. Total said 400 of its stations had been affected and Esso reported a similar toll.
At an empty station on Paris's Champs Elysees avenue, manager Paula said she spent much of her morning trying to stop drivers unhooking fuel pumps. "It's madness, we're submerged," she said.
The International Energy Agency, which overlooks strategic oil supplies in OECD countries, said that France as of Friday had 98 days of fuel between industry reserves and government reserves.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon has warned that people blocking fuel depots were breaking the law.
Riot police used teargas and rubber pellet guns in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to break up a crowd of youths who set fire to cars near an anti-reform protest by secondary school students. They intervened for similar reasons in the city of Lyon.
adapted from Reuters and VOANews
