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Mass strike against pension reform hits France
A mass strike against the French government's plan to raise the retirement age disrupted transport and shut down schools on Thursday, with unions saying two million protestors took to the streets.
Postal workers, gas, electricity and factory workers joined in the movement across the private and public sectors which all but shut down several radio stations, newspapers and theatres.
Bernard Thibault, head of France's biggest union the CGT, estimated countrywide turnout at 1.9 million people, speaking at the start of a huge protest march in Paris.
Police put the turnout lower at 800,000, across some 200 protests including in Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse where strikers marched to the sound of firecrackers and African-style "vuvuzela" horns.
"Hundreds of thousands of voices have spoken out against pushing back the retirement age," said the CGT, accusing the government of "making the workers foot the bill for a crisis they didn't cause."
"We are headed for a larger-scale conflict if the government persists in this direction," the union warned in a statement.
The government last week unveiled proposals to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018, increasing the number of working years required for a state pension, as part of efforts to cut France's big budget deficit.