“France Airport Workers Go on Strike Over Pension Reform, Flight Cancellations and Delays Expected”

In France, airport workers will go on strike from Sunday evening to Tuesday morning in protest against the reform of the pension system, which, among other things, provides for an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

Flight cancellations and delays are expected at Paris’s Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports, as well as airports in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, Nice and Beauvais, France’s civil aviation authority said on Wednesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government’s decision to raise the retirement age to 64 and make other changes to the pension system sparked widespread protests in the country.

The protests went on peacefully for weeks, but on March 16, they turned violent when the government decided to implement the pension reform directed by Macron without approval in the lower house of the parliament.

Polls show around two-thirds of French oppose changes to the pension system, but Macron insists they are needed to save it from deficits it faces in the coming decades.

Macron’s political opponents and union leaders are urging protesters to continue their campaign against the pension reform law, and are also calling for mass protests on May 1 – International Workers’ Day.