French unions staged nationwide strikes today and hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets to protest against plans to raise the retirement age to 62, throwing down the gauntlet to President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to Reuters. Bernard Thibault, the head of France's largest CGT union, said at least two million protestors had joined some 200 rallies across the country. Police put the turnout at 797,000. Whatever the real figure, it was clear that many more people had taken part than at a previous day of action last month and Thibault told reporters the government would be forced to water down its contested pension reform. "This draft bill will not get passed in its current form," he said as he headed the main, sun-soaked rally in Paris. Labour Minister Eric Woerth conceded that turnout had been "quite high", but said this would not weaken his resolve. "This does not represent a threat to the government," he said. "It is quite obvious there is an absolute need to raise the retirement age, as all other European countries have done." Sarkozy's government has vowed it will not revisit the centrepiece of the reform -- lifting the age of retirement to 62 from 60 by 2018 -- saying the move was needed to prevent the pension system from going bust and sinking state finances. But unions have succeeded in torpedoing previous attempts to overhaul state pensions and pinned their hopes on massive support of their day of action to force a government retreat. Thousands of transport workers walked off the job, hitting train, plane, metro and bus services, while civil servants, teachers and some private sector staff also went on strike. "We are all in the same boat," said Jean-Luc Mariano, a docker who joined a march in the port city of Marseille. "It is already hard enough working at the age of 56 in the docks. To add yet more years to that means we will never get to enjoy our retirement," he added.
