French unions assail beleaguered reform minister-UPDATE 2

Trade the News

Saturday September 04, 2010 09:01:20 AM GMT

* Unions say minister's woes impinge on pension reform role

* Minister dismisses charge, says to see job through

(Adds Air France, ministers, Sarkozy)

By Brian Love and Matthieu Protard

PARIS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - French trade union bosses said on Friday that Labour Minister Eric Woerth, plagued by an influence-peddling scandal, was no longer fit to defend a controversial reform of the pension system.

Raising the pressure before nationwide strikes against the reform next week, CFDT union chief Francois Chereque said Woerth should no longer serve as lead minister on the biggest reform so far of President Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year term.

"It's no longer possible to work with Eric Woerth," Chereque told Europe 1 radio. "The Eric Woerth problem is beginning to overshadow the real problem, the reform."

Woerth has been dogged for months by revelations from a family feud surrounding the fortune of France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, regarding allegations of illegal funding of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and the giving of favours.

Woerth, who stepped down in July as treasurer of the UMP, acknowledged on Thursday for the first time that he had intervened to help Bettencourt's wealth manager receive France's prestigious Legion d'Honneur medal.

But he brushed off the union attacks on Friday, saying he was concentrating "120 percent" on the pension reform which he has to shepherd through parliament before the end of October.

"I am obviously totally focused on the pension reform and have been since last April, and there's no reason why that should change," he told a business congress near Paris.

EYE TO ELECTIONS

The attack on Woerth marked a clear change of tactics for France's two most powerful unions, the CGT and CFDT, which had until recent days given the Bettencourt scandal a wide berth.

Chereque also joined forces with CGT leader Bernard Thibault in a newspaper interview on Friday to challenge Woerth's capacity to represent the government.

Some French media speculated the union shift could make Woerth's position untenable as Sarkozy prepares to reshuffle his team in late October, with an eye on elections in early 2012. Asked if he still supported his labour minister, Sarkozy told reporters simply: "Yes."

"I will not be the president of the Republic who leaves without having balanced the pension system," he later told factor workers. "I am extremely determined."

The government unveiled plans in June to overhaul the pay-as-you-go pensions system and clean up state finances, warning that without major changes the system would run up annual deficits of 50 billion euros by 2020.

As France prepares for Tuesday's national strike over the plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, the opposition Socialist party has also stepped up its criticism.

"Eric Woerth's position is no longer tenable," said Francois Hollande, a legislator who formerly headed his party. "It's impossible to defend his own case and the reform.

In a column in Le Figaro newspaper, two ministers and two former UMP ministers warned that it was possible the opposition could win the 2012 election and called for their party to ramp up its preparations to support Sarkozy in 2012.

Unions say a government offer to relax pension rules for people who perform arduous labour, hold multiple pensions or started work young is not enough.

They say the strike will disrupt everything from public transport and schools to telecommunications. Air France said the strike would affect 50 percent of its short- and medium-haul flights from Paris's Orly airport, but just 10 percent of those from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. (Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn; editing by David Stamp)

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