Sunday, October 3, 2010

Students and families join French pension protests

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101002/wl_nm/us_france_pensions_protests



French families, students and private sector workers joined mass demonstrations on Saturday as trade unions ramped up pressure on the government to drop pension reforms.

Opposition to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 showed no signs of abating and hundreds of thousands across the country marched in the fourth round of rallies in as many months

Unions said that about 2.9 million had marched, while police said the crowds numbered 899,000. The union figure was about the same as at the last demonstrations on September 23. The police figure was slightly lower.

About 230 protests took place across the country with a bigger turnout of families