Day 6 for French train strike

PARIS: Exasperated French commuters braced for a sixth day of no train service and massively snarled traffic after transportation unions voted to press on with their strike Monday against the government's effort to change some early retirement benefits.
 
With six unions voting to continue the strike, the president of the RATP transit service, Pierre Mongin, warned in an interview on RTL radio that services would be limited on the Paris Métro and trains to the city from the suburbs.
 
In an attempt to end the stalemate, the CGT union said strikers would meet with the management of the national rail network, SNCF, on Wednesday with discussions focused on President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to reform pension benefits for about 500,000 workers in the rail and energy industry. The SNCF said in a statement that a government representative would participate in the discussions Wednesday only if rail traffic had resumed by then.
 
But more strikes are expected Tuesday, when civil service workers plan to protest job cuts and press for negotiations on wage increases.
 
Travelers continued to suffer over the weekend with severely disrupted train service, but it also prompted a small counterprotest by a committee calling itself, "Stop the Strike."