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France Unveils Pension Reforms, Setting Up Part 2 in BattleWithUnions

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - After weeks of crippling transportation strikes, France's
   government will formally unveil controversial pension reform
   legislation Friday, which will test its ability to overcome powerful
   uniondissent andoverhaul an indebted retirement system that is one of
   Europe's most generous.

   The pension reforms arguably are the most central and problematic of
   President Emmanuel Macron's broader campaign promises to make the
   country more economically sustainable and business friendly. But it
   remains unclear whether he will succeed where previous governments have
   failed -- and angry voters may sanction the 42-year-old leader and his
   young Republiconthe Move party in upcoming elections.

   "The government thought it would have the reforms without a problem.
   That's not what happened," said JeanGrosset, director of the
   Observatory of Social Dialogue at Paris, theresearch group at the Jean
   Jaures Foundation. He predicts the government's success in pushing
   through meaningful reforms will come at a cost.

   'Beginning of the end'

   But sociologist Guy Grouxsaidthe government hademerged as the clear
   winner in a standoff that ultimately split unions and mobilized only
   asmallfraction of the workforce.

   "I think this is the beginning of the end" of the strikes, Groux said,
   adding the government "has come out very well" despite some
   concessions.

   Hardline syndicates plan to counter the draft bill with a "black
   Friday" marked by massive street protests and metro shutdowns, echoing
   some of the worst days of a transportation strike that began in early
   December and is the longest in the country's history.

   "Friday is the day or never," said Philippe Martinez, head of the
   hardline General Confederation of Labor, or CGT union, which wants the
   legislation scrapped.

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