Updated on
Summary
About 250 striking airport workers blocked Paris' Orly airport forcing substantial delays to flights as part of the growing series of wildcat actions by strikers protesting government plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 62. Paris' main airport for charter and domestic flights was temporarily brought to a halt by the action, which forced some departing passengers to carry their bags along motorway central reservations for the last half-kilometre trip to the airport. Inside the terminal, riot police patrolled as information screens began to turn red with the list of delayed flights. Outside the terminal, protesters chanted demands for a general strike to convince the government to withdraw its plan, which it says is essential to ensure the long-term health of one of Europe's most generous pension systems. We're out on strike in support of the measures on retirement. What's more, we do jobs that are pretty difficult, we fix the planes, we do strange hours, the cleaning of the aircraft, their panting, working with toxic products. And for the moment, we can leave aged 60. But if Sarkozy's plan goes through it's going to be 62. And we don't want to die at work, said Joel Le Jannic, a union shop steward at Air France. The protests have become the biggest challenge facing the centre-right president, who is struggling with rock-bottom popularity ratings as he tries to appease financial markets by stemming a ballooning pension shortfall.
