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French Government Meets as Unions Vow to Harden Pension Strike

Agence France-Presse

   PARIS - Top French officials met Friday to hash out their strategy
   ahead of fresh pension overhaul talks with unions who have threatened
   wider protests alongside a crippling transport strike now it its fifth
   week.

   "I urge all union leaders to accept the hand offered by the prime
   minister so that together we can find a compromise," Finance Minister
   Bruno Le Maire said while meeting Paris shop owners hurt by the strike.

   The public transport headache has taken a big bite out of holiday
   earnings for shops and artisans in the capital, with revenues down 30
   to 40 percent, according to the CMA business federation.

   Hard-line unions are fighting an overhaul that would rationalize
   France's 42 separate pension regimes into a single points-based system
   which they say would require millions of people to work beyond the
   official retirement age of 62.

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