French Student Violence Renews

[Soldier4Christ]

During Tuesday’s French union fomented “National Day of Strike”, violence has again begun again in Paris. The current violence and rioting is said to have spread throughout France.

The riots are the students’ and labor unions’ response to a new French government sponsored jobs’ bill that would allow employers to hire more employees and to fire employees within a 2-year probationary period. “At will” employment is currently practiced in other Western countries, including the US.

The Paris crowds are reported to be “very ugly” and protestors have broken windows, burned cars and trashed businesses, as well as throwing rocks, bottles and other projectiles at French police.

[Soldier4Christ]

French Unions Stage New Labor Law Protest Marred by Violence

March 28 (Bloomberg) -- French students and labor unionists marched through Paris today, leading a fourth nationwide day of protests against a new youth labor law. Police fired tear-gas as violence broke out when some protesters refused to disperse.

Police, who deployed 4,000 officers in the capital, coordinated with union security stewards to stop the march degenerating as one did on March 23 when youths torched cars, damaged a shop and attacked marchers.

As marchers arrived today at Place de la Republique, the end of the protest route, police fired tear-gas and charged as they were bombarded with bottles and other missiles. Stewards urged protesters who hadn't yet entered the square to go home.

Protests against the new labor law, which makes it easier to fire young people, have brought together unions, students and the opposition Socialist Party, who want it scrapped. Known by its French acronym CPE, the contract drove hundreds of thousands to the streets in the last two weeks, forcing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to offer some concessions on March 25.

The issue threatens to split the ruling Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, party, whose president and most likely presidential candidate, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has distanced himself from de Villepin. Sarkozy yesterday called for a suspension of the CPE to allow consultations.

``We have to find a way which is not a retreat and at the same time allows the unions to come back to the negotiating table,'' Eric Woerth, a Sarkozy adviser, said after UMP lawmakers saw de Villepin today. France elects a successor to President Jacques Chirac in 13 months' time.

Sarkozy Program

In the northern town of Douai yesterday, Sarkozy presented a simplification of labor laws as part of his 2007 election platform.

``France is not condemned to sitting back and watching the world change around it while its economy degenerates and its social model malfunctions,'' Sarkozy said.

In parliament today, de Villepin said he's ready for discussions on reducing youth unemployment. He repeated earlier offers to trim the CPE's two-year probation period and oblige employers to explain layoffs within that time.

Segolene Royal, tipped as a likely Socialist Party candidate for 2007, told reporters that Chirac should intervene and ask the government to start talks ``by recognizing a mistake and a bad reform and withdrawing the law.''

Students held their first national protest on Feb. 7, followed by a second demonstration on March 7 and a third on March 18.

Provincial Turnout

Today's demonstrations gathered about 878,000 people in provincial cities outside Paris, LCI television cited police as saying.

Today's protest could gather a total of 3 million across the country, Bernard Thibault, secretary general of Confederation Generale du Travail, or CGT, France's second largest union, said on LCI.

Five labor unions, including the CGT and the biggest, the Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, declined an invitation from de Villepin to talks on the conflict tomorrow, union officials said.

``De Villepin's letter invites us to discuss adjusting the CPE and that's not acceptable,'' said Anne Delbande, 27, secretary general of the UNEF students' union. ``He must withdraw the text and then we'll talk.''

Strikes

The protest was backed by numerous strikes, though transport stoppages had only a limited impact. At 8:30 a.m., 70 percent of Paris subway trains and buses were running normally as were three-quarters of regional express, or RER, trains on the east- west A line and half on the north-south B line, the city transport authority said.

Civil servants, including teachers, hospital staff and employees at utilities such as Gaz de France SA and Electricite de France SA, staged walkouts. National newspapers weren't published because of strikes at printing presses.

Gas production was cut by 4 percent and more cuts will follow, said Marie-Claire Cailletaud, CGT spokeswoman for mines and energy workers. She said employees are also protesting the proposed GDF merger with Suez SA.

One third of flights, both domestic and international, were canceled, the French civil aviation authority said. One of two runways was closed by a firefighters' strike at Paris's Orly airport, and an air traffic controllers' stoppage is delaying planes at Charles de Gaulle airport.

The protests have closed 56 of France's 84 universities, UNEF students' union said.

Violence

On March 23, smoke wafted around the Eiffel Tower after rioters near Invalides, the gold-domed monument that houses Napoleon's tomb, attacked protesters and burned cars. Police questioned 227 people, 80 of whom were detained.

``Police are filtering everyone coming in from the suburbs, they're searching bags for anything that could be used as a weapon,'' Joaquin Masenet, secretary general of the UNSA police union said. ``Officers are in every train station to check who is coming into Paris.''

The current protests follow three weeks of clashes in the underprivileged suburbs of French cities, afflicted by high unemployment and other social ills, last November.

The CPE is the most contentious issue faced by de Villepin, 52, in his 10 months as prime minister. De Villepin says the new law makes France's labor market more flexible and is needed to counter unemployment of 9.6 percent nationwide and 22.2 percent for the young. Students say it reduces job security.

`Discriminatory'

``The CPE puts the young in a discriminatory position in regards to the rest of the workforce,'' said Lorette Dubois, 17, a student at the Lycee Condorcet high school, near Paris's Gare Saint Lazare station. ``You can't get a house, start a family, buy a car. You could be fired at any moment. It's humiliating.''

With the CPE, the unions have an issue that has broad opposition. Sixty-three percent of the French disapprove of de Villepin's decision to maintain the CPE, while 34 percent back the prime minister, according to an Ipsos SA poll for Le Monde and France2 television.

Four percent of those polled on March 25 want the CPE to be kept unchanged; 50 percent want it maintained with some adjustments, and 44 percent want it revoked, the poll of 959 people aged 18 or more showed.