[NYTr] Strike costing France up to 400 million euros per day

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071119190816.jcwfuh66.html


Strike costing France up to 400 million euros per day: minister

PARIS (AFP) - With France braced for more walkouts this week, the rail
strike over pension reforms is costing between 300 and 400 million
euros (440 and 586 million dollars) daily, the government said Monday.

The estimate provided by Finance Minister Christine Lagarde -- who
noted an exact figure was hard to gauge -- hits a wide array of
businesses, from steel giant ArcelorMittal, to stores, hotels and
theaters.

Hardest hit by the walkout, which marked its sixth day Monday, is
France's SNCF rail company, which has already lost "more than 100
million euros," according to president Anne-Marie Idrac. 

The transportation strike is also costing Paris metro operator RATP
four million euros a day and creating disruptions in rail-shipped
supplies, officials said.

ArcelorMittal, for one, complains of losing wagon loads of goods and
delivery deadlines gone unrespected.

"The consequences are dramatic for our clients," said Olivier
Marembaud, head of SNCF's freight system.

The commercial sector is also raising the alarm, with independent
stores claiming the most dramatic losses. Their drop in revenues of up
to 50 percent is on a scale "not seen since May '68" when strikes and
student protests swept through France, said Charles Mercer, president
of the national clothing federation. 

While the numbers of strikers are dropping off, the movement is
expected to continue Tuesday -- joined by a separate and long-planned
one-day protest by civil servants, hospital staff, teachers and other
state employees.

The transportation walkout takes aim at a government-proposed overhaul
of so-called "special" pensions systems enjoyed by 500,000 workers
mainly in the rail and energy sectors, but also some members of the
entertainment industry. Polls show the majority of French oppose the
strike.

The Paris region has taken the biggest brunt of the walkout, which has
created a commuting nightmare along with an economic one. 

For the Paris-area hotel sector, the movement amounts to a 20 percent
to 50 percent drop in clientele according to the local hotel union.
Theatres have been similarly hit.

Meanwhile, exhibition centres around the capital fear a longer-term
impact.

"These kinds of events weaken us compared to the foreign competition,"
said Phillippe Bertin, director of client operations at the Paris-Nord
Villepin centre, who estimates turnout at its four showrooms dropped 20
percent last week. Passengers wait for trains in Paris Gare du Nord
train station ©AFP - Martin Bureau

Even those who should be profiting from the strike -- notably taxi
drivers -- complain traffic jams have scuttled their profits.

Still one business is booming: bicycles.

The sports chain Decathlon, for one, claims a surge in bicycles and
cycling equipment sales in its Paris stores -- but says the windfall
still cannot compensate for its drop in clientele.