French commuters faced a sixth day of travel headaches Monday as transit unions continued a strike which was costing the national rail authority an estimated 20 million euros ($29 million) a day. Fewer than half of the 700 high-speed TGV trains were running Monday, said Phillipe Routier, a spokesman for the rail authority SNCF. He said 75 percent of Thalys trains to Belgium but only a third of trains to Germany and Switzerland were running.Roughly a third of trains to the Paris suburbs and 68 percent of national mainline Corail trains were running Monday, Routier said.
Labor unions called the strike last week, angry over plans by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to reform a special category of pensions. The government is focusing on pension plans which allow some workers -- mostly train drivers -- to retire as early as 50.
The strikes are widely seen as a test of Sarkozy's political will, and the government has so far stood firm in the face of the striking unions, refusing to negotiate on the central issue of retirement age.
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