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October 18, 2010

1,500 French Gas Stations Run Out of Fuel as Labor Protests Intensify
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In France, protests are intensifying against a plan by President Nicolas
Sarkozy to raise the retirement age from sixty to sixty-two. Striking
workers have shut down all of France’s oil refineries and gas depots.
Around 1,500 gas stations have run out of fuel, and the French
government has admitted that the country’s biggest airport, Charles de
Gaulle in Paris, might only have enough fuel to last until tonight. Many
flights scheduled for tomorrow are expected to be canceled. Millions of
French workers and students have taken to the streets in recent weeks.

Benoît Hamon, spokesperson for the Socialist Party in France: "What we
can see is that the strikes are spreading, go slows are multiplying, the
young people are increasingly mobilized, and the workers are not backing
down. Now it’s up to the government to return to reason, and the leaders
to return to reason, so that the project is suspended and negotiations
are resumed."



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