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2010-09-07 07:35:52
Woman consults information boards reading "No traffic" at Strasbourg railway station, 6 September 2010 Train services and flight traffic are expected to be severely disrupted
France is facing major disruption as a national strike gets under way against plans to raise the retirement age.
The 24-hour-strike is set to hit public transport, banks, air traffic and the postal service.
Unions say they expect hundreds of thousands of private and public sector workers to take to the streets to protest about the plans.
The strike date coincides with the presentation of the pension reform bill to parliament.
That is well below the European average, but a sizeable jump in a country that guards jealously its way of life, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.
Under current rules, both men and women in France can retire at 60, providing they have paid social security contributions for 40.5 years - although they are not entitled to a full pension until they are 65.
The government plans to raise the retirement age to 62, the qualification to 41.5 years, and the pension age to 67.
The government is also looking to find 100bn euros ( 83bn) of savings in three years, and is planning cuts in the bloated civil sector, our correspondent adds.
Three-quarters of those surveyed say they support the demonstrations, yet 65% of them think it will make no difference to the government's decision, he adds.
Some secondary school teachers went on strike on Monday, protesting against plans to cut 7,000 jobs in education.
Fewer than half of all inter-city and local train services are expected to run on Tuesday, state railway company SNCF said. But Eurostar trains between France and London should operate normally.
France's civil aviation authority said it had asked all airlines to cut Paris flights by a quarter.
Air France said it would cut short- and medium-haul flights into and out of Paris by up to 90%, with long-haul flights remaining largely unaffected.
Senate debates
France's largest union, the CGT, said it expected the turnout for the protest marches across the country to be stronger than during the strikes in June, when more than 800,000 people took part in demonstrations.
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EUROPE'S RETIREMENT AGES
"We may have an exceptional day and, if it is exceptional, we will perhaps be at a turning point," CGT leader Bernard Thibault said.
The bill is one of the key reforms the president hopes to push through during the last two years of his mandate.
It will be presented to the National Assembly by Labour Minister Eric Woerth.
Separately, the French Senate will debate the ban on the full face veil approved by the lower house in July.
Senators are also expected to debate a controversial new security law.
It would see recent immigrants stripped of French citizenship if they committed serious crimes such as killing a police officer.
The law would also allow electronic tagging for foreign criminals facing deportation.
The proposals and the recent deportation of about 1,000 Roma (Gypsies) have led to protests across the country.
The European Parliament is scheduled to debate the situation of the Roma minority in Europe on Tuesday.