Labour unions lead anti-reform protests in Paris, sustaining standoff with government

Record ID: 101858

  • Title: Labour unions lead anti-reform protests in Paris, sustaining standoff with government
  • Date: 26th May 2016
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 26, 2016) (REUTERS) FORCE OUVRIERE (FO OR WORKERS' FORCE) UNION BALLOONS FLOATING AS PROTESTERS GATHER BEFORE BEGINNING MARCH PROTESTERS GATHERED, PREPARING TO MARCH PROTESTER SITTING ON TOP OF VAN SURROUNDED BY UNION FLAGS AND FLOATING BALLOON LABOUR UNION CGT CHIEF, PHILIPPE MARTINEZ, IN CROWD SPEAKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) LABOUR UNION CGT CHIEF,
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2016 14:37
  • Keywords: France labour reforms protests union workers strike Myriam El Khomri
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014JG3VWN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French labour unions led the demonstration in Paris on Thursday (May 26), the eighth day of nationwide demonstrations against labour reforms, with France's hardline CGT union on the frontline.
    CGT has sought to choke off power and fuel supplies and hamper the public transport network in a showdown with a government that flatly refused to withdraw a contested labour reform bill.
    Protesters gathered at Place de la Bastille on Paris's right bank, waving flags as union balloons floated above them with the crowd preparing to march.
    After months of rolling protests sparked by a reform bill that seeks to make hiring and firing easier, Thursday's stoppages and street marches were being watched closely as a test of whether the CGT-led opposition is solid or at risk of fizzling out.
    Prime Minister Manuel Valls insisted the government would not withdraw the law and would break up refinery blockades, saying there could be some tweaks to the reforms but not on any of its key planks. He was backed by the country's other big trade union, the CFDT.
    Valls has called the unionists carrying out the refinery strikes a "minority".
    "More than 70 percent (of French people) are in favour of the withdrawal of the labour bill. It shows, contrary to what I've heard in the mouths of officials, that we are not a minority, or a sect, or I don't know what," CGT chief Philippe Martinez said.
    Protesters also took issue with the government's use of constitutional decree 49.3 to bypass the majority to push the contentious bill through.
    As tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, workers responded to the union call by stopping work at oil refineries, nuclear power plants and the railways, as well as erecting road blocks and burning wooden pallets and tyres at key ports like Le Havre and near key distribution hubs.
    Valls said the bill would not be withdrawn but that he would in no case scrap the part of the law that put the CGT on the warpath in the first place.
    A move the leader of the smaller FO union, Jean-Claude Mailly, said would not make enough of an impact to calm discontent.
    "Well the government is deaf, what do you want me to say? The prime minister (Manuel Valls) must buy himself a hearing aid. We have a prime minister that has dug in his heels, who says 'we'll slightly modify the famous article that causes the most objections' but without withdrawing his approach so the response on the other side is no. As long as the prime minister keeps his heels dug in, the conflict will go on," he said.
    That part of the law would allow firms to opt out of national obligations on labour protection if they adopt in-house deals on pay and conditions with the consent of a majority of employees.
    However, in a further sign of disagreements within the ruling Socialist party over how to find a way out of the crisis, Finance Minister Michel Sapin told LCP television that "maybe" that article of the bill should be tweaked.
    The CGT is waging a lonelier battle this time. Laurent Berger, head of the rival CFDT union and a backer of the planned labour reform, said: "The political and industrial relations climate has turned hysterical ... let's calm things down."
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