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Sabotage hits French railways
21/11/2007 14:06 - (SA)
Paris - Saboteurs staged a co-ordinated
attack on France's high-speed rail network early on Wednesday,
causing nationwide delays to services already hit by an eight-day
transport strike, the SNCF state railways said.
A senior SNCF executive blamed militant strikers for the
damage and said police were hunting those responsible.
"These are genuine acts of sabotage. It is extremely
shocking," the SNCF's Mireille Faugere told reporters.
"We think it was the diehard (strikers)," she added.
The majority of railway workers are now back at work ahead
of the resumption of negotiations in their dispute over pension
reform and the SNCF had predicted that four out of seven high
speed TGV trains would have run on Wednesday - an improvement
on recent days.
The SNCF warned passengers to expect delays of up to four
hours on the TGV network, which carries the bulk of traffic
between major French cities, as engineers repaired the damage.
Officials said the attacks happened shortly before 06:00
with arsonists damaging 30km of signalling in the
west and burning cabling on the eastern TGV line. Saboteurs in
the north and southeast shut down signal switches.
Bernard Thibault, head of the largest rail union, the CGT,
condemned the action. "If this is indeed an act of sabotage ...
then it is an inadmissible act that is aimed above all at
bringing discredit on the profession," he told Europe 1 radio.
Seeking compromises
Government, unions and management are due to resume talks at
both the SNCF and the RAPT Paris transport company on Wednesday
in an effort to end a strike that started on November 14.
The negotiations are scheduled to run into December, but
President Nicolas Sarkozy has called on remaining strikers to
return to work while details of a possible deal are discussed.
Sarkozy said on Tuesday he would not renounce the core
element of his pension reform, which entails an end to early
retirement rights for transport and energy workers, but
indicated he was ready to make concessions in other areas.
The head of France's business lobby said on Wednesday the
dispute was causing huge damage to the economy.
"The cost of the strike is quite simply incalculable. That's
to say it is probably gigantic. It is a real catastrophe for our
economy," Laurence Parisot told RTL radio.
The pensions showdown is the biggest challenge Sarkozy has
faced since taking office in May and his government fears its
credibility would be destroyed if it gives in to the unions.
An opinion poll published in the conservative Le Figaro
newspaper on Wednesday gave Sarkozy a boost, saying 68%
of people thought the transport strike was not justified.
The last time a government tried to reform the so-called
special pension regimes was in 1995, but it was forced to
backtrack in the face of nationwide stoppages and broad public
sympathy for the strikers.
In a separate dispute, teachers, postal workers and civil
servants returned to work after a one-day strike on Tuesday
called to protest against the government's economic programme.
They have promised further stoppages in the months ahead.
Numerous French universities also remained disrupted on
Wednesday as part of an on-going student protest against a
government reform of higher education.
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