French postal workers, teachers on strike

By James Mackenzie

PARIS (Reuters) - Thousands of French postal workers and teachers went on strike on Tuesday in separate protests over the future of two of France's biggest public sector institutions.

The protests are the latest in a series of strikes by public sector workers angered by reforms President Nicolas Sarkozy says are necessary to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

According to the SNES-FSU union, 40 percent of secondary school teachers took part in the strike over job reductions and schools reforms, although the education ministry said the figure was just 12.3 percent.

In the primary and kindergarten sector, Education Minister Luc Chatel said around 20 percent of teachers stopped work.

The size of the schools system, which employs almost 1 million people, and La Poste, which employs more than 250,000, underlines the sensitivity of the issues for the government.

Teachers' unions are angry at measures which include new training standards, changing the selection process to make it easier for parents to choose a school and steadily reducing the number of teachers.

But Chatel said the government would not back down on plans that aim to trim the overall public service payroll by replacing only half the public servants who retire.

"This policy allows us to lift teachers financially, which is something they have been looking forward to for some time," he told RTL radio.