Strikes of trains, the subway, and air-traffic control brought France to a standstill for almost two weeks.(The Week ...)(Brief article)

Strikes of trains, the subway, and air-traffic control brought France to a standstill for almost two weeks. A third of the 5 million state-sector workers are still apparently on strike, and so are students and others. In a bravura performance, President Nicolas Sarkozy turned his back on the chaos, to visit China and sign major deals for a French company to provide nuclear energy. He had sensed that the public approved of his proposed reforms to remove unaffordable trade-union privileges, and so modernize the economy. So it proves. The railway workers are returning to work rather apologetically, but as ...