French refineries remained shut, trains were on half service, schools closed and gas stations ran dry as unions held their fourth strike in two months against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age.
Government ministers said France has enough fuel to last several weeks and that they’ll continue to use police to break up barricades at oil depots as about a fifth of the country’s 12,000 service stations carried signs saying they’d run out of fuel. The Senate is set to vote on the pension measure this week, giving final parliamentary approval to a plan to eliminate the retirement-system deficit by 2018.
Sarkozy, who has refused to retreat from his plan to increase the retirement age to 62 from 60, said he’d hold a series of meetings today to ensure that the country isn’t snarled by the strikes.
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