France’s massive strikes are costing the national economy up to Euro400 million or $557 million each day, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday as workers continued to block trash incinerators to protest a plan to raise the retirement age to 62.
Rotting piles of garbage — now at nearly 9,000 tonnes — are becoming a health hazard in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which has been hit hard on land and at sea. Striking dockers at France’s largest port are intermittently blocking ships trying to unload fuel there.
Twelve striking refineries have been shut down for nearly two weeks, but the protest movement appeared to weaken on Monday after workers at three refineries voted to end their walkout. The French oil refineries’ body, UFIP, said all the country’s oil depots had also been unblocked.
The oil worker’s return to work is likely to ease the ongoing gasoline shortages, which on Monday still had about one in four gas stations in France shuttered.
Lagarde said on Europe-1 radio that it was difficult to put a daily price tag on the strikes, but she estimated it at between Euro200 million ($278 million) and Euro400 million. Beyond that, the strikes are damaging France’s image, she said.
Rotting piles of garbage — now at nearly 9,000 tonnes — are becoming a health hazard in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which has been hit hard on land and at sea. Striking dockers at France’s largest port are intermittently blocking ships trying to unload fuel there.
Twelve striking refineries have been shut down for nearly two weeks, but the protest movement appeared to weaken on Monday after workers at three refineries voted to end their walkout. The French oil refineries’ body, UFIP, said all the country’s oil depots had also been unblocked.
The oil worker’s return to work is likely to ease the ongoing gasoline shortages, which on Monday still had about one in four gas stations in France shuttered.
Lagarde said on Europe-1 radio that it was difficult to put a daily price tag on the strikes, but she estimated it at between Euro200 million ($278 million) and Euro400 million. Beyond that, the strikes are damaging France’s image, she said.