Thread: Fuel Short, Flights Canceled, nationwide fuel crisis strikes intensify

Fuel Short, Flights Canceled as France's nationwide fuel crisis strikes intensify




Dana Kennedy Contributor

(Oct. 18) -- As France began its second week of nationwide strikes in protest of planned pension reforms, workers blocked oil refineries and depots, and more than 1,000 gas stations reported being out of fuel.

The intensifying fuel crisis, which aviation officials said would cut flights into French airports by half on Tuesday, stems from outrage over President Nicolas Sarkozy's vow to increase the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. Sarkozy has said that pension costs have ballooned as France's population ages and must be cut to reduce the budget deficit, which last year rose to 7.5 percent of GDP.

The showdown is escalating as neither the Sarkozy government nor the country's unions appear disposed to back down. The pension reform package has already been passed by the National Assembly, and the Senate is schedule to cast the vote necessary to make it law on Wednesday.
Nervous French drivers, fearing widespread gas shortages, have lined up at gas stations since Friday in scenes reminiscent of the 1970s energy crisis in the U.S. Strikers have shut down 10 of the country's 12 oil refineries.

As the day wore on, more signs reading "Pompe a sec," meaning gas pumps were empty, began appearing at gas stations all over the country.

"I'm not taking any chances," Genevieve Bouley of Cagnes-sur-Mer said as she waited in line this afternoon behind about 20 other cars at a gas station in Nice. Her two children sat in the back seat. "I have a lot to do this week and I'm going to fill up today in case the gas runs out."

At least two flights out of Paris, one to Seattle and one to Mumbai, had to take off without enough fuel and make re-fueling stops en route while European air traffic controllers in Brussels advised pilots bound to France to bring extra fuel with them for their return leg, The New York Times reported.

Truckers amped up France's time-honored Operation Escargot (operation snail's pace) this morning by joining together in slow-moving convoys between Paris and Lille and Angers, a protest designed to bring traffic on the roads to a standstill.

Sarkozy's administration has continued to hang tough in the face of the nationwide strikes, which brought over a million people into the streets last week and more than 3.5 million in 200 different protests on Saturday. The strikes have also attracted a large segment of high school students, who have been clashing with police.

The Ministry of Education reported that 261 high schools were "disrupted" today because of the ongoing strikes.

"We won't let the French economy be hijacked by a fuel blockade," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told France's TF1 television. "There won't be a shortage because we will do what we have to do to make sure this country is not blocked."

Christian Estrosi, the industry minister and mayor of Nice, vowed that government officials would get access to the blocked oil depots. France reportedly has enough fuel in stock to last several weeks, if anyone can get to it.

"We respect the right to strike, not the right to put up blockades," Estrosi told Bloomberg News.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe attacked Sarkozy during a recent CNN interview.

"It's three years of this, three years of stupidity on stupidity," Delanoe said. "It's arrogance on arrogance, even verbal violence on his part against some classes of French citizens."

Watching this with interest. If the French government is successful with this action, what will they do next? Reduce the annual vacation to 4 weeks a year?

The French are always striking over something or other.