Protests hit France as unions rebel over changes
FRENCH POLICE were yesterday braced for violence as unions and other goups held nationwide protests against changes to labour laws they fear damage job security.
The protests were the first big public display of discontent with President Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, which kicked off in May amid enthusiasm over his promises of revving up the French economy but is now foundering amid anger over the labour decrees and other domestic troubles.
The prominent CGT union is leading the protests, calling for strikes and organising 180 demonstrations against labour decrees unveiled last month by Mr Macron’s government.
Police used water cannons and tear gas on several hundred hooded youths who joined a protest march in Paris.
The youths who showed up near the end of the march pelted security forces with objects, briefly halting the event held by unions and other groups.
The CGT union said 60,000 people participated in the Paris protest, but police put the figure at 24,000. A statement said four people were detained and one person with a minor injury was taken to hospital.
Thousands of union activists marched on Tuesday morning in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, in Le Havre on the English Channel and other cities.
Horn-tooting funfair workers held a separate protest in the capital against legal changes they say favour big corporations and could wipe out their industry.
Dozens of big rigs drove at a snail’s pace around the Arc de Triomphe, causing rush-hour traffic jams as protesters danced and waved flags on a flat-bed truck with a severed plastic head from a funfair ride.
The workers said they timed their protest to coincide with the broader labour demonstrations, since both movements are about workers fearing for their jobs.
Bumper car worker Sam Frechon said: “Everybody likes funfairs. Everybody has been to a funfair one time in his life. Funfair is France.”
The protests come amid anger at a comment last week by Mr Macron suggesting that opponents of his labour reform are “lazy”.
Last week, the president angered opponents with a remark on a visit to Greece. “I am fully determined and I won’t cede any ground, not to slackers, nor cynics, nor hardliners,” he said.
Mr Macron’s labour decrees – which reduce the power of unions and give companies more authority to fire workers and influence workplace rules – are the first step in what he hopes are deep economic changes. The decrees are to be finalised this month.
Critics say they dismantle hard-fought worker protections and accuse the government of being undemocratic for the way the decrees were pushed through parliament.
Companies argue that existing rules prevent them from hiring and contribute to France’s high unemployment rate, currently around 10 per cent.
Some unions refused to join the protests, preferring to negotiate with the government over upcoming changes to unemployment and retirement rules.
Mr Macron himself is in the French Caribbean to meet victims of Hurricane Irma and see the aid operation.