Rubbish has been piling up on the streets of Marseille after nine days of strikes by collectors Workers protesting against pension reforms in France have partially blocked access to Marseille airport.
Only a trickle of travellers are through a blockade affecting all roads to the terminal, unions say. The city is already crippled by a port blockade and a strike by rubbish collectors.
There have been escalating protests across France against government plans to raise the pension age from 60 to 62.
Correspondents say Marseille is now the main focus of the protest.
There is no public transport, trains have been delayed or cancelled and the ports blockaded, and a nine-day strike by rubbish collectors means several thousand tonnes of refuse is piling up on the streets.
Central government official Michel Sappin, said: “There is a real danger to the safety and health of Marseille.”
The upper house of the French legislature is due to vote on raising the retirement age later this week. The lower house has already approved it.
Marseille is becoming the waste-bin of France. At least that’s what some of the people mutter.
If the wind is blowing fiercely enough off the Mediterranean – as it does at this time of year – you can just about avoid the stench of rotting fruit and veg.
But if it isn’t, a walk along the main shopping thoroughfare can leave you with a lung full of bad air.
The rubbish hasn’t been cleared off the streets for over a week now. Great piles stand against shop windows.
A woman pushes her way past the black bags and cardboard boxes that have been thrown against the Rotary Club offices.
People talk of the rats running out from the piles of rubbish. One shopkeeper, standing outside his electrical shop, says he’s concerned about disease taking hold.
President Sarkozy has called for an end to the disruption.
“If it is not stopped quickly, this disorder which is aimed at paralysing the country could have consequences for jobs by damaging the normal running of economic activity,” he said on Wednesday.
He said he would press ahead with unpopular plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67.
The debate on the pension reform bill started in June. But there are still more than 200 amendments to be debated and as left-wing senators pick a fight on each and every one of them, they are likely still to be ploughing through this debate into the weekend.
Ahead of the vote, correspondents say unions are stepping up the pressure on a 10th day of refinery strikes, go-slows on motorways and work stoppages at regional airports, with union leaders scheduled to meet later in the day to decide on their next move.
The more militant unions see this as the moment to pile on the pressure and there is a precedent for such a move, says the BBC’s Christian Fraser in Paris.
In 2006, student protests forced the government of the day to retreat on the controversial labour reform bill, even after the then president Jacques Chirac had signed it into law.
Some unions want to continue the protests whatever happens in parliament but that will depend on public support and the resolve of their members, many of whom have gone without pay for days even weeks, our correspondent adds.
About a quarter of France’s service stations had no fuel on Wednesday, and strikes also stopped work at two of France’s three liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.
On Wednesday, the country began importing electricity as the wave of protest action took hold of energy supplies. At least 12 of France’s 58 reactors were shut for maintenance but the unions say production has been cut at four others.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux authorised use of the paramilitary police to break blockades at fuel depots. He said he respected the right to protest, but that did not include the right to block workers or to commit pillage or violence.
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