Fuel stopped flowing to Paris’s two main airports on Friday as strikes against President Nicolas Sarkozys pension reform went into their fourth day.The company that operates the pipeline serving Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports told French media that fuel had stopped flowing because of the strike at the refinery providing it.
On Friday, those strikes affected all 12 of France’s oil refineries, and many oil depots were blockaded, raising fears of eventual fuel shortages.
Early on Friday, French police forcibly lifted the blockades of several oil depots as the bitter tug-of-war continued over the reform, which foresees gradually raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 by the year 2018.
Unions have set mass street protests against the reform for Saturday and called for another day of nationwide strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday.
The strike continued to disrupt railway traffic on Friday, with an average of about one in two scheduled high-speed TGV trains and regional trains operating.
Secondary school students protested in several cities Friday. In Cannes, a police officer was taken to hospital after being struck by a rock. Several hundred schools were disrupted by anti-reform activities Friday, the education ministry said.
The reform has passed the National Assembly and will be voted on in the Senate on Wednesday.
