Don't Mess With 60 Year Old Retirement Date in France

Canadian governments are busy trying to encourage people to work beyond aged 65 by outlawing mandatory retirement provisions in employment contracts.  In France, the normal retirement date has been 60 for years.  French pension schemes are tied to aged 60 just like Canadian schemes have for years been tied to age 65.  However, as in Canada, the French pension plans face a significant crunch in the years to come as the population ages.  Therefore, the French government has indicated its intention to move the normal retirement age from 60 to 62.
French workers are none too happy about this.  As we’ve seen before, the French do not take changes to labour-related policies sitting down.  Remember the story last year about the rash of “Boss-Napping”, when French workers began locking their bosses in the factories to protest layoffs and plant closings.   Or the mass strikes to protest the government’s attack on the 35 hour work week?
This time, workers have gone off on a large scale national strike involving hundreds of thousands of workers spanning a variety of industries, including transportation workers and teachers. Here’s the BBC story.
Here’s a video on the strike from Bloomberg.
It’s really interesting how French unions can mobilize such huge public support for political protests, since only about 9 percent of French workers are union members. Because of how the French model works, relatively few workers actually join unions, but many workers are covered by collective agreements and most are supportive of the French labour movements efforts to fight for social protections.
What do you think of the French tendency to engage in national strikes to protest government policies?  Do you think that this sort of response would be welcomed by Canadians?