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Misery for European air travellers
PARIS, France -- Airlines have been forced to cancel hundreds of flights as air traffic controllers in France strike as part of a national protest by civil servants. The strike is part of a walkout by public employees -- including postal workers, transport workers and hospital workers -- over salaries, pensions and the government's privatisation plans. Only one in five scheduled flights were expected to take off from Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports in Paris on Tuesday, with short and mid-range services the hardest hit, officials said. Long-haul flights to destinations such as the United States, Asia and Africa were expected to be less affected, Paris airports authority ADP said. British Airways cancelled 64 flights between London and France on Monday and Tuesday. Germany's Lufthansa was cancelling a total of 70 flights through to Wednesday morning. The 32-hour strike began at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Monday and is expected to continue until Wednesday morning. The powerful Communist-aligned CGT union helped organize the strike, which was expected to include demonstrations in many cities across the country. Tens of thousands of public sector workers plan to hold a march in Paris on Tuesday. Some 4,000 people marched through Marseille, police said, although march organizers said some 10,000 took part. Bottlenecks formed on platforms in many Paris subway stations. while southern cities of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille reported sharp service cutbacks in buses and subways. The strikes amounted to the biggest labor challenge yet for the five-month-old government of centre-right Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. On Monday, French hauliers set up about 40 roadblocks after talks the day before between two major unions and management failed to reach a deal on pay and benefit demands, but the protest failed to bite. (Full story) French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin repeated a warning on Monday that he would not stand by and allow the strikes to weaken France's already fragile economic growth. "In our country we have the right to strike, the right to protest. These rights must be respected but we don't have the right to blockade," Raffarin said. Reuters contributed to this report.
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