Final pension draft passes French Senate

PARIS, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- French senators, with hundreds of students demonstrating outside their chamber's windows, voted 177-151 Tuesday to bump up the minimum pension age by two years.

The final wording of the legislation is expected to be OK'd by the National Assembly Wednesday, The New York Times reported. Assuming it survives a review by the Constitutional Council, the bill could become law by mid-November and take effect in July.

The measure will raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62 and for a full pension from 65 to 67.

With lawmakers moving forward with the pension changes, worker strikes across France were easing somewhat, the Times said. Workers were back on the job at four of France's 12 oil refineries, though strikes at major ports were still keeping crude oil from reaching some refineries.

Train service was reported to be nearly back to normal. Garbage collection had resumed in Marseille.

Union leaders have called additional national work stoppage for Thursday and Nov. 6.

About 1,000 young people protested outside the Senate building, expressing their displeasure with President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms.

"Sarko, you know where to stick your reform," one banner said, while another stated, "No, no to your bogus reform, yes yes to revolution."