France Passes Pension Bill, By Gian Sexsmith

 France Passes Pension Bill, By Gian Sexsmith

France has finally come to a conclusion and passed the pension bill. On Tuesday, the French Senate passed the final draft making the minimum age for a pension from 60 to 62 and now a full pension from 65 to 67. The Pension was passed from a vote of one hundred and seventy seven to one hundred and fifty one.  

The bill is expected to become a law in November and be brought into full effect by July of next year. One of the main exceptions of the law says there will be a new debate on a more comprehensive review of Frances pension system after the next presidential elections. This is because right now Nicolas Sarkozy has most of the National Assembly on his side and that is who is passing the pension bill.

With all the Union striking and all the walkouts from oil refineries and airports it has really hurt  Frances economy but now most have stopped last Tuesday morning. France lost so much imported fuel in the past few weeks; France has been importing fuel at four times the rate to help re-supply their gas stations.  Train services are working back to normal and the garbage men returned to work. The garbage men were on strike for two weeks and now are forced to clean up 10,000 tons of garbage that has been left unattended. 

 The unions are talking about having more national strikes on Thursday and one more on November 6^th. The government isn’t worried about it because once the National Assembly passes its final vote, they think the demonstrations will keep lessening.  

In conclusion France has finally made a decision. Hopefully causing everything to go back to normal for Frances economy. People will be getting back to work and quit striking or at least until next year president elections in 2013. Where the Pension Bill will be revised again. 

OIL STRIKE IN FRANCE 10-18-10

French Strikers still going at it but even more intense, Gian Sexsmith

            French Strikers still going at it but even more intense, Gian Sexsmith

France last week was experiencing its biggest strike yet at three hundred thousand people and was its third strike. This week Frances turnout on its sixth strike was over one million people. They are still striking because of Frances president Sarkozy is trying to raise the government pension reforms. These strikes have affected Frances fuel supplies, public transportation and its education.

Frances fuel economy is being affected because right now there are over 4,000 gas stations with out any fuel. In France there are only 13,000 gas stations and if 4,000 of them have no fuel, that is about 1/3 of Frances gas stations.

Frances public transportation is being hit hard half of Paris’s Orly airport were cancelled because of a walk out by air traffic controllers. Frances train services were very over crowded because only half of the services were running.

The education system was affected with 379 secondary schools were being blockaded with people or had some sort of disruption. In some areas schools were rioting throwing stones at police officers, which they responded back with tear gas.

Overall Sarkozy is going to have to do something to take control back of his country. His popularity has been decreasing since 2007 as shown in the graph. As said from BBC, “One poll for BVA conducted on 15 and 16 October suggested his approval rating was down to 30%, the lowest for three years.” Otherwise France is going to be suffering for a while.

France hit by third national strike this month,the biggest so far.

Frances Biggest Strike Yet

Frances Biggest Strike Yet, Gian Sexsmith

            France is currently experiencing huge union strikes, with some workers off the job for more than fifteen days already.  Many of these workers are striking because they are trying to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. The people of France are striking because of the government pension reforms; this is going to be the third strike in one month for France. These are the biggest strikes that have happened “Police say Tuesday's protests in Paris are the biggest so far, estimating a turnout of 330,000.” According to the BBC.. Due to all the different jobs that are striking it is causing complete chaos for France.  Airline flights are being cancelled; one out of three are being cancelled from the Charles de Gaulle Airport. In Paris the Eifel Tower was shut down because there weren’t enough staff to operate it. The French oil industry is taking huge blows with, “Workers at the Fos-Lavera oil port in southern France are striking for a 15th day, forcing up diesel prices in Europe. Diesel supplies have run out on Corsica”. According to the BBC There are 56 petrol tankers and 29 cargo ships stranded outside Fos- Lavera port. A cement worker in the central town of Angouleme told some French press "I'm prepared to extend the strike. I started working at 17 and now I'm 50 and I'm starting to get really fed up with it." According to the BBC. People are not ok with the pension reforms and are going to continue to strike until they are revoked.

Wind Farms in the UK

Wind Farms in the UK, Gian Sexsmith

Off the coast of southeast England there is a wind farm that has just opened to help with the use  of renewable energy to power homes. With not only the U.S trying to go "green" Britain is also fighting for finding alternative energy resources. With a deadline of 2020 coming closer and closer to having 15% of its power be from renewable energy sources, where right now its only at 3%.  The opening of this wind farm is one step closer to reaching their goal. Although there are many people who are in favor of this concept of putting as many wind farms that will fit too use the energy created from the farm. There are just as many people who are against the idea. People who live on the beach of where this wind farm just opened complain about the view it gives them now. Even though their view is not as important as global warming and finding alternative energy sources, it is something people complain about. One man, Mr. Wellington lives in Norfolk, England protested and dressed up as a rare pink footed goose because he is concerned with opening more and more of these farms it is going to end in the result of extinction of that species. There are only 250,000 more pink-footed geese and he doesn’t want to keep putting indents on the species population. Even though people are protesting the government is still pushing forward trying to meet the deadline. Off the southeast shore of England the largest off shore wind farm operated by a company called Vattenfall. This new wind farm can operate alone 200,000 homes just off of the energy it produces.  Britain now has 268 wind farms and are trying to think of new ways besides wind farms to produce alternative energy.  They are talking about hydropower generators and how they could produce way more energy than wind farms. They would produce more energy because wind is inconsistent change of wind direction and how hard it can be blowing. That hydropower could be a better approach.