Taxi Drivers and Air Traffic Controllers Go on Strike in France
By AURELIEN BREEDEN

PARIS — Taxi drivers and air traffic controllers in France went on separate but simultaneous strikes on Tuesday, blocking traffic in major cities and disrupting flights at several airports.

The strikes were part of a wider day of protests in the public sector, including hospitals and schools, to call attention to staff reductions, low salaries and education overhauls. More than 100 demonstrations were planned around the country, and CGT, one of the unions that organized the strike, said that 130,000 to 150,000 people participated nationwide.

The police in Paris said that about 2,000 taxis had blocked or delayed traffic around Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, as well as Porte Maillot, a major intersection in western Paris, and near the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Some taxi drivers set fire to tires and tried to block the highway that circles the French capital, but the police pushed the demonstrators back with tear gas.

Twenty-four people were arrested, including the driver of an airport shuttle who had tried to force his way through a taxi roadblock near Orly, injuring two people, the French news media reported.

Similar Paris protests in June turned violent, with taxi drivers overturning cars and clashing with the police.

Hundreds of taxi drivers also blocked traffic around airports and train stations in Lille and Toulouse on Tuesday, and they paralyzed traffic in central Marseille.

Taxi unions called the strike to protest ride-booking companies like Uber, which allow people to summon drivers through a smartphone app. Taxi drivers argue that ride-booking companies do not respect certain regulations — like a ban on cruising for fares, which only taxis can legally do — and they say that drivers for ride-booking services have an unfair advantage because they do not have to pay for expensive taxi licenses.

Uber is not the only company to organize ride-booking services in France, but it has become one of the most popular and has become a lightning rod for opposition to such services. The company has faced several legal challenges in the country, and two of its executives are scheduled to go on trial next month on criminal charges of organizing illegal taxi services through the company’s low-cost UberPop service.

UberPop, which enabled drivers without a professional license to pick up paying passengers, has been ruled illegal in France, and it has been discontinued there by Uber.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls held an emergency meeting with taxi union representatives, the interior minister and representatives from the Transportation Ministry on Tuesday.

Mr. Valls’s office said in a statement after the meeting that the government would increase enforcement of the 2014 law that regulates the activity of ride-booking companies, to “put an end to unfair behavior and guarantee the conditions of loyal competition.”

The statement said that Mr. Valls was ready to consult industry and government representatives “on the economic equilibrium of the individual transportation sector and on the potential regulatory evolutions that might follow.”

The consultations will begin in February and will last about three months, the statement said, adding that a “qualified person” would be appointed in the coming days to lead the process.

The statement also said that the government would provide support to individual drivers, but it did not provide any details. Some taxi unions have asked that drivers receive financial compensation from the state for their loss of business and the drop in the value of taxi licenses.

Ahmed Senbel, president of the National Federation of Independent Taxis, said after the meeting that he felt Mr. Valls was fully aware of the problem, but he warned that the announcements might not placate the taxi drivers.

“We’ve been containing it for seven years, but today we can’t contain it anymore,” Mr. Senbel said. Mr. Valls said earlier that the right to demonstrate should be respected but that violence was “unacceptable.”

One in five flights was canceled at the two main Paris airports, and other flights were delayed as air traffic controllers protested job cuts and changes to how their salaries are calculated. Public transportation was not disrupted.

法國數十萬人罷工 陸空交通大亂

法國教師、機場航管人員和農民等多個工會號召26日大罷工，數十萬人上街頭抗議，許多學校因此停課，陸空交通都受影響，巴黎戴高樂等多個機場都提醒乘客先確定航班是否如期起飛。

法國多個跟公務員有關的工會號召560萬名公務員罷工上街頭抗議，要求調漲公務員薪資。

相關工會指出，公務員薪資自2010年以來幾乎凍漲，但這些年的通貨膨脹達8%，即使領取同樣薪資，購買力卻下降，相關工會希望透過此次罷工，在接下來的薪資談判時爭取到應有的加薪權益。

法國各地小學及公立幼稚園的老師、行政人員，預計約有1/3、10萬人將加入此次罷工，部分學校可能因此停課。

此外，法國機場的航管人員也因分紅制度未將他們列入，工會決定同樣在26日罷工，雖然官方評估只有兩成飛機班次可能受到影響，但不少媒體都評估受影響的班次可能達五成。

空中交通受影響外，地面交通則有計程車司機團體針對政府無力處理Uber等私人叫車的不公平競爭問題，再度發起抗議行動，26日上午在巴黎主要機場及市中心，都有計程車隊包圍主要道路，讓交通大打結。

法國西部的農民組織更計畫封鎖道路，抗議農產品價格持續下跌帶來的衝擊，要求政府盡速拿出對策。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/business/international/france-strike.html

2016-01-27．聯合報．A13．國際．布魯塞爾記者蕭白雪