French unions take on Sarkozy over pensions

By Francois Murphy

PARIS (Reuters) - French unions staged nationwide protests on Thursday against plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy to make people work longer to qualify for a full pension.

In a rare show of unity, France's five largest unions called on members to take to the streets in 80 cities to denounce the government's decision to make people work 41 years before retiring against 40 years at present.

"The scale of the protests will show that the government will have to review its plans under pressure," Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, told France 2 television.

Initial indications suggested that the day of action was having a mixed impact. Public transport in France's two main cities, Paris and Lyon, was little affected, but there was major disruption in the third city, Marseille.

Two out of three high speed trains were running and schools also remained open meaning business as usual for much of France.

However, unions said the success of their protest would be measured by how many people turned out for their rallies, with 500,000 expected in Paris later on Thursday for the main march.

More than one million people took to the streets during the last such demonstration against pension reform in 2003 and anything less today would weaken the union position.

Besides the pensions protest, Sarkozy also faced disputes in other sectors on Thursday, with port workers striking over plans to privatise part of their industry and fishermen still disrupting shipping in their fight against rising fuel costs.