French Support President in National Labor Strikes (1/3)

Even for strike-prone France, this has been a busy week. On Tuesday, teachers, postal workers and fire fighters poured into the streets protesting for better salaries and working conditions. On Wednesday, the tobacconists went on strike against a new anti-smoking law. Meanwhile, students have blocked roughly 40 universities nationwide to express their discontent about government plans to grant higher education institutes greater autonomy.

But it is a massive transportation strike, now in its second week, that has caused the most damage. Although unions and government officials have begun negotiating reforms to special pensions - and more trains are running - the strike continues to snarl traffic, particularly in the Paris area.

The unrest carries all the classic French ingredients. The government proposes reforms. The French protest. The government backs down. But this time around, the country's chief executive is Nicolas Sarkozy.

Surveys show a stunning majority of French support their hard-charging new president as he tries to end special pension perks benefiting a small slice of the population, most of them rail and utility workers.

On Sunday, several-thousand protesters even demonstrated against the strikes - an oddity in a country where walkouts usually evoke sentiments of "solidarity" against the authorities.

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那怕是对于罢工不断的法国，这星期也可以算是热闹得很。周二，教师、邮递员和消防队员纷纷涌上街头罢工游行，期望得到更高的薪水和更好的工作环境。周三，烟草商进行罢工游行反对（政府）新出台的禁烟法案。同时，法国全境大约有40所高等院校的学生拥堵在门口以表达他们对于政府将给与教育署更高自治权的不满。

到现在为止已经持续两周的交通行业大罢工是其中造成影响最大的。尽管工会和政府官员已经开始就特殊养老金改革的问题进行谈判，但是罢工还在持续，影响了法国的交通畅通，尤其是在巴黎地区。

在罢工的场面中我们能看到所有经典的法国式元素：政府提议改革；人民反对游行；政府求全让步。这次不同的只是国家的领导人变成了萨科奇。

让人惊奇的是，有调查显示大多数法国人支持做法强硬的新总统中止使少数人受益的特别退休金制度。这些少数人主要是铁路和公用事业职工。

周日，甚至有好几千人游行反对罢工-- 这真是个奇怪的现象。 在法国，罢工一般都会激起民众的团结一致来对抗权威。