France

A Paris court will rule on Monday on whether to accept a plan by a worker’s co-operative to save bankrupt SeaFrance. But hard-line intransigence by powerful trade unionists may have fatally undermined the process.

French authorities ordered police to replace striking security staff at airports on Thursday as workers' unions called for new action in February to protest against government plans to make it more difficult for the aviation sector to strike.

An employee of France Telecom-Orange set himself on fire in his office parking lot on Tuesday, reviving the painful memory of a string of suicides that has gripped the telecommunications giant for three years.

Workers at all 12 of France's oil refineries have voted to end a two-week strike over pension reform that provoked fuel shortages across the country.

The government has all but won. But protesting workers across France vowed to carry on their struggle against a government they say shut the unions – and them – out of negotiations to change France's pensions system.

As the dust settles after more than a week of protests, how will events unfold as the government finalises its moves to raise the retirement age?

France is facing an acute energy crisis as industrial actions against contentious pension reform plans continue. Roughly a quarter of fuel stations have run dry and electricity production has been severely affected.

President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered police on Wednesday to clear all remaining blockades at French fuel depots. The government's unpopular pension reforms have led to organizers blocking access to fuel supplies.

As the French government gets closer to signing alaw that will raise the retirement age in France from 60 to 62, a leading French labour expert says violent clashes between youths and police have undermined the unions’ position.

Protests over proposed pension reforms have crippled France's transport system and posed a major challenge for the country's embattled government – but they have been largely peaceful. Not quite the view taken by some of Europe's newspapers...