Strikes costing France €400m a day says finance minister

French finance minister says industrial action is having a costly effect on the national economy
France strike
Private and public sector workers demonstrate over pension reforms in Marseille . Photograph: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters Jean-Paul Pelissier/REUTERS

France's strikes are costing the national economy up to €400m (£355m) each day, the French finance minister said today, as workers continued to block waste incinerators in protest against a plan to raise the retirement age to 62.

Almost 9,000 tonnes of rotting piles of rubbish are becoming a health hazard in Marseille, which has been hit hard on land and at sea. Striking dockers at France's largest port are intermittently blocking ships trying to unload fuel.

Twelve striking refineries have been shut for nearly two weeks, but the protest movement appeared to weaken yesterday after workers at three refineries voted to end their walkout. The French oil refineries' body said all the country's oil depots had also been unblocked. The workers' return is likely to ease petrol shortages.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has stood firm throughout the week-long protest, insisting the reform is necessary to ensure funds for future generations as life expectancy increases and the nation's debt soars.

The bill to overhaul France's pension plan is to be definitively voted on this week by the two houses of parliament, probably by Wednesday.

"We must be aware that in a world without borders we can't have a French exception … that exists nowhere else," said lawmaker Pierre Méhaignerie of Sarkozy's UMP party.

Strikers were counting on derailing the measure before it is signed into law after this week's final voting.

Rubbish and petrol are critical weapons for the strikers, who say the reform is unjust. Besides raising the minimum retirement age to 62, it increases the age when full retirement benefits can be accessed from 65 to 67.

It was only in 1982 that French employees won the right to retire at 60, and since then it has been considered a well-earned right. "We aren't going to work on the docks until 65. It's just not possible," said Frederic Chabert, 47, at a Marseille port.

Workers at a Paris waste incineration plant, in their fifth day of a strike, were catching up with colleagues who have let rubbish pile up in Marseille, France's second-largest city.

The demonstrations against the retirement reform have brought millions into the streets, and polls have shown that most people support the strikers. Meanwhile, Sarkozy's popularity is falling fast.

A poll published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that only 29% of those surveyed were satisfied with Sarkozy's performance. It was his lowest rating since taking office in 2007.