Transit worker strike slows France to a crawl

A poll by the BVA firm published Wednesday suggested a wide majority of French sided with Sarkozy, with 58 percent of those questioned saying the government should not back down compared to 34 percent who disagreed. No margin of error was given for the poll of 981 people but at that size it would be plus or minus three percentage points.

Despite the backing, Sarkozy’s bid to overhaul France and make it more competitive could be an uphill battle. Civil servants plan a day of action next Tuesday and magistrates are to protest a plan to redistrict courts, eliminating dozens, at the end of the month.

On Wednesday, students blocking universities for the past week stepped up their protest, forcing 25 to close and partially blocking 10 others, including the prestigious Sorbonne, according to UNEF, the main students’ union. The Education Ministry said 11 schools were closed and several dozen subject affected by disturbances.

They added their numbers to a protest march through Paris on Wednesday.

Students opposed to the blockages were doubly punished — without transport and unable to get into class. “Not only did it take me an hour and a half to get here, I can’t get in,” Sorbonne law student Michael David said. Professors there tried to push their way through pickets.

Both the SNCF train authority and the RATP that runs Paris public transport predicted a softening of the strike action Thursday — but not enough to make a solid difference.

Many caught by the strike made the best of it.

Didier Thery of suburban Cergy-Pontoise took a vacation day and drove his wife to work in Paris, along with a colleague.

“It let me see Paris in another way,” he said, “with everyone on bicycles, men taking wives with their beautiful shoes on motorcycles.”

Said his wife, Isabelle: “We are so used to strikes, we’re well organized.”

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