French transport strike expected to drastically disrupt travel PARIS (AP) =97 Air France plans to cancel 65% of its short- and medium-haul= =20 flights Tuesday, victims of a nationwide strike expected to wreak havoc for= =20 air and land travel. The "day of action" by unions over government plans to= =20 reform retirement benefits is expected to cut deeply into air, train, bus=20 and subway traffic. Air traffic controllers were among those planning to=20 walk off the job. Air France said it would fly all long-haul flights, but=20 cancel 65% of its short- and medium flights. Some Air France employees plan= =20 to participate in the strike. In London, British Airways said it=20 anticipated "quite a number of disrupted and canceled flights" while other= =20 carriers said aircraft would simply be grounded. On the ground, almost all= =20 networks of the SNCF, the train authority, were expected to fall victim to= =20 the strike, with SNCF workers planning to walk out Monday evening. Metro=20 and bus traffic in Paris is to be "very sharply reduced," according to the= =20 RATP which runs the systems. Urban transport strikes were planned in some=20 60 cities. The government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is trying= =20 to enact major reforms of France's overburdened pension system to save it=20 from collapse. He wants the new pension plan voted in by Parliament before= =20 summer holidays at the start of July. Social Affairs Minister Francois=20 Fillon plans to meet with unions a day after the strike, he said on Sunday. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************