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Paris: Cafe tables stand empty, souvenir stores at the Louvre look deserted and even the Eiffel Tower has seen a decline in visitors three days into a public transport strike that has disrupted life in the French capital.
Visits to one of the most famous landmarks in Paris are down 10 per cent since public transport workers walked off the job on Wednesday in a dispute over pension reforms, said the SETE company operating the tower.
Near the Louvre museum, staff in empty souvenir shops wiped floors and re-arranged postcards, while restaurant owners said their tables have been largely empty in the past few days.
"There's fewer tourists and many Parisians have just taken the day off because of the strike," said Patrick Bladou who runs the Palais Royal cafe opposite the Louvre museum.
"I've had 50 per cent fewer clients than usual," said Vincent Sitz, 37, the owner of the Ragueneau restaurant next door. "My staff struggle to get to work. And once they're here, there's not enough clients to serve. It's a nightmare."
French trains are expected to remain blocked until at least the weekend after unions said they were still waiting for an agreement on the conditions under which three-party talks between government, unions and employers could take place.
Pressure on Sarkozy
Transport workers voted yesterday to press on with a national strike, union officials said, keeping up pressure against President Nicolas Sarkozy's reform plans.
But there were some indications that the walkout was losing a little momentum, even as strikers voted to keep going through the weekend. Fewer than one-third of train drivers stayed off the job yesterday, down from 60 per cent in the first full day of walkouts on Wednesday. Several unions for both the national rail operator, SNCF, and the Paris transit authority RATP agreed to press on with the strike through Monday, said labour officials.
Unions called the walkout to protest Sarkozy's plans to strip away generous pension benefits for train drivers and some other state-run sector workers.
Shop assistant Carole Attali said she had no sympathy for the protesting workers, who oppose plans to scrap special pension privileges that allow some 500,000 public sector workers to retire on full pensions after paying contributions for only 37.5 years, instead of 40 years for other workers.
"I think they should work towards their pension like the rest of us," she said, adding the strike had cut business at the souvenir store by more than half in past days.
"We're worried about revenue," she said, as a colleague was dusting off a heart-shaped cushion featuring the Eiffel Tower. At the Theatre du Palais Royal in the centre of Paris, the audience had shrunk by about a third due to the strike. "It's very annoying for everyone," cashier Nicole Boisserie said.
Sales down
But a few hundred metres away near the Louvre, Jean-Pierre Winter said he understood the strikers, although the stoppages had curbed sales by some 30 per cent at his newspaper kiosque.
"People buy newspapers when they get onto the metro. But now they cycle. And you can hardly read on a bike!" he said.
"But I support the strike... The government does not really set a good example when it comes to modesty," he said, citing the case of Sarkozy who has just hiked his own salary by 140 per cent.
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