Strikes Plaguing France and Germany; Sarkozy and Wife Split

Looks like the Socialist paradises of France and Germany are having problems. So are the Sarkozys, but we'll get to that.

France hit by transport strike

A nationwide one-day strike by public transport workers in France has left the country with drastically reduced train, bus and metro services.
Trade unions held protests in dozens of towns and cities in their campaign to protect a pension system enjoyed by 1.6 million rail, energy and other workers

In general, the issue revolves around the economic reality that the French economic performance can not support all the pension benefits granted in the past to various worker groups. The current government is talking about scaling some of those benefits down (such as retirement at age 50 in some cases), and now the workers are pushing back.

Bernard Thibault of the General Labour Confederation warned more strikes could follow.

Workers were "fed up with being constantly portrayed as privileged or in some way guilty on the issue of pensions", he added

Meanwhile, cars are getting torched in their neighborhoods and nobody seems to care.

Over in Germany, a train strike brings chaos.

Germany has seen more traffic chaos after a strike by train drivers on the country's local rail network.
The nine-hour walkout hit heavily-used commuter trains in eastern states and some of the country's largest cities including Munich and Frankfurt."

So what does the German labor want?

Members of the GDL are demanding a 31% pay increase and a separate contract from other rail workers - attracting the anger of many in Germany.

It has rejected a 4.5% pay increase offer from Deutsche Bahn, which two other unions - Transnet and GBDA - agreed to in July.

In both France and Germany, the thinking by the employees involved seems to be to damage their own economy as much as possible so the government pay them more.

As I always say, sooner or later almost everything (even for socialists) boils down to money.

Of course, the major news out of France this morning is the breakup of the Sarkozys.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to separate from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia, the presidential office says.
The separation is "by mutual consent", the Elysee Palace statement said.

Speculation had recently been mounting that the couple were to split, with the media often remarking on Ms Sarkozy's absence from her husband's side.