PARIS: One of France's biggest unions Thursday called for further “massive” strike action next week against a planned pension reform that has triggered the biggest and most sustained anti-austerity protests in Europe. A final Senate vote on President Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular bill is set to be speeded up to make sure it happens Friday, a parliamentary source told Reuters, following pressure from the government as protests and fuel blockades drag on. Sarkozy is battling 10-day-old refinery strikes and fuel depot blockades that have dried up a quarter of the nation's gasoline stations.“The government remains intransigent. We need to continue with massive action as early as next week,” Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, told RMC radio. Union leaders will meet Thursday evening to agree fresh action. Sarkozy's handling of the protests is being closely watched by other European governments implementing austerity measures. He ordered police this week to break blockades at fuel depots. On Thursday, they removed a roadblock to Marseille airport, erected by hundreds of striking refinery workers. Students, who fear the pension reform will worsen youth unemployment by keeping older workers in jobs longer, hit the streets by the thousand in central Paris in their first major fall protests. Several hundred secondary schools and three dozen universities were hit by strikes. In the wealthy city of Lyon, clashes between youths and riot police, which began last week on the fringes of anti-pension protests, continued Thursday. Sarkozy called the clashes “scandalous” and said rioters would be punished.
