A strike at French oil refineries over pension reform disrupted school holidays and sporting events over the weekend, with a quarter of petrol stations short of fuel and popular resorts likely to be particularly hit.
Raymond Soubie, a senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, told Europe 1 radio the regions of Brittany, Loire-Atlantic and Auvergne in the northwest and center would be among the worst affected by the shortages, which come at the start of a 12-day school holiday.
Several football matches in the north over the weekend had to be postponed.
Sarkozy scored a victory on Friday by getting his bill to make people work two more years for their pensions through the Senate, but striking refinery workers are putting a strain on businesses and daily life and show no sign of backing down.
Workers at two refineries have voted to stay on strike next week, and workers at the other plants will meet in the days ahead to decide their course of action, CGT union official Charles Foulard at energy company Total said on Sunday.
"The movement continues," Foulard told Reuters. "Everything will be debated among the workers and will depend on the mobilization of the workers."
Rail strikes are also set to carry on next week, although at least half of all services will likely run.
Two-thirds of French people oppose the pension law and have put up some of the fiercest resistance in Europe to austerity measures aimed at reining in huge deficits.
Sarkozy sent in police last week to break up blockades at fuel depots and the government battled to get diesel and petrol out to motorway service stations before a flood of families hit the road this weekend.
COMPLEX LOGISTICS
Protests are complicating the government's efforts to restore normalcy to the country's energy sector. Soubie said how complex it was to improve the distribution situation quickly.
"It is a very difficult logistical problem," he said, adding: "... it will improve very gradually."
France's main oil refinery in the northwest, in Donges, is blocked and operations at a nearby fuel depot have also been interrupted at times this week, hindering deliveries to the entire region.
The government on Friday obtained a court order to require four employees at the fuel depot to go back to work to get the operation running again.
A union official in the port of Nantes said 300 protesters have prevented a tug boat from towing a tanker carrying 10,000 liters of oil up the Loire River to the Donges fuel depot.
(source:reuters.com)
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