Students Protest As Strike Spreads

Compounding France’s worst labor crisis in a decade, thousands of university students marched in cities across the country Thursday to demand more money for education.

Utility workers and telephone employees joined a transit strike that paralyzed the capital for a seventh day.

Police said 25,000 university students marched in Paris, demanding an additional $400 million - 10 times what the government promised - to upgrade overcrowded universities and hire more teachers.

The transit workers’ strike nearly shut down the capital, leaving commuters without trains, subways or buses and causing massive traffic jams in and around the city.

Public employees are upset at plans to reform France’s nearly bankrupt social security system and cut a $64-billion government budget deficit with wage freezes, layoffs and higher taxes.

The strike is to last until at least today, when union leaders meet with Transportation Minister Bernard Pons.