Pension Bill Causes Protest in France

   In Paris, union workers at twelve of Frances' refineries have been on a nine day, nation wide protest. The protest was sparked after a pension bill to raise Frances' pension age from 60 to 62 was proposed. Because of the strike the French Government has lost substantial amounts of money. The article states:

 "the protests had so far cost the country €200 million to €400 million, or $280 million to $560 million, in lost production every day."


   With the amount of production lost it would look as though the Government took a huge hit. Worker's across France have been holding out and it sounds as though productivity in the refineries and the ports is slim to none. "In Marseille, France’s biggest port, striking port workers and garbage collectors left dozens of oil tankers idle at sea and nearly 9,000 tons of trash piled up in the streets. But, despite these implications, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde says,“We came out of the crisis in fairly good shape and we should not be slowing the recovery.” It seems as though the Government and the worker's of France are making progress in reaching a compromise.