- Title: FRANCE: Rail strike causing chaos for commuters
- Date: 28th March 2006
- Summary: WIDE OF DEPARTURE
- Embargoed: 12th April 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Employment,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7NVIM4GZZYW6WP7RP7451TUZW
- Story Text: French commuters were bracing for a tough day on Tuesday (28 March) as state-run SNCF railway workers and RATP metro workers went on strike to demand Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's conservative government withdraw a new youth job contract.
France was risking chaos on Tuesday (March 28) as students, school children and workers were planning to march in many French cities, while a general strike was expected to severely disrupt public transport with many trains, buses and flights cancelled and only one in two Paris metros expected to run.
"The traffic is disturbed but I would say that with a bit of effort it will be more or less normal, we will get there and we will survive this CPE", said Olivier Martinet after coming out of the suburban train that had taken him to Paris at dawn.
Two in three TGV trains should run from Paris but only one in three near Marseille, Grenoble and Chambery. The Eurostar and Thalys should run as usual.
Two RER (Paris metropolitan and regional rail system) express trains in five were scheduled on Line A but the interconnection in Nanterre-prefect was suspended. On the RER B line, two express trains out of five should run normally but the interconnection in Gare du Nord station was to be entirely disrupted.
Many commuters think that a one-day strike will not change anything and that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will stick to his decision to maintain the CPE (First Job Contract).
The row over the First Job Contract, which allows employers to fire people under 26 without giving a reason during a two-year trial period, is one of the biggest crises in Villepin's 10-month administration. Villepin ignored the unions when he rammed a law on the new First Job Contract (CPE) through parliament, despite reservations from his ministers and the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party which Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy leads.
The government wants to make France's rigid labour laws more flexible in a bid to boost economic growth and cut unemployment in a world characterised by increasing globalisation of markets. But many French people reject an erosion of what they call their social rights and are willing to defend that in public protests that are part of the country's tradition going back to the revolution of 1789 that created the first republic. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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