France's oil refineries reopen after strikes

Paris, France (CNN) -- All 12 of France's oil refineries have reopened after being shut down for two weeks or more following a series of massive union-led actions protesting the government's planned pension overhaul.

Strikes ended Friday at all six of Total's refineries, according to a spokesman for that company. It should take about a week for those facilities to start producing fuel again.

Yves le Goff, a spokesman for the French Union of Petroleum Industries, said industry leaders planned to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the situation.

The refineries and the nation's 219 petroleum depots were targets this month when hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets to rail against a plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Unions call the move unfair, though France's government say it is critical to keep public finances in order.

The latest round of nationwide protests took place Thursday. France's Interior Ministry estimated that 560,000 people demonstrated, while unions -- six of which called for the protest, along with another one planned for November 6 -- put the number at a much higher 2 million.

A day earlier, the lower house of France's parliament approved the controversial pension reform bill; the Senate had approved it Tuesday. But lawmakers can still force the bill to go to the Constitutional Council before it becomes law. The opposition Socialist party has said it will try that route, which requires 60 legislators.

The pension plan is the latest in a continuing round of moves by President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration to pare down France's deficit and curtail government spending. While many nations in Europe and elsewhere have undertaken or proposed major cuts, such moves are especially significant in France, where historically one in four jobs has been tied to the public sector.

Already, 40,000 teachers and staff have been laid off since 2008 in schools and universities. And 54,000 military jobs are set to be lost through 2015, per a plan announced two years ago. The government says that another 100,000 civil service jobs have been cut since Sarkozy took office in May 2007.

CNN's Winnie Andrews contributed to this report.