French union protests target oil ports
Nationwide strikes triggered by government proposals to change employment rules.
PARIS — Volley after volley of tear gas poisoned the Paris air Thursday, as authorities struggled against nationwide strikes and a groundswell of public anger at a high-stakes government attempt to change theway France viewswork.
Oil refineries shuttered. Nuclear were plants on hold. Dock workers hurled firecrackers. Union activists cranked up the tensions to try to force President Francois Hollande to abandon a labor bill that gives employers more flexibility and weakens the power of unions.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls opened the door to possible changes in the labor bill that’s triggering all the anger but said the government wouldn’t abandon it.
Union activists say it’s too late to compromise. Posters at a protest in the port of Le Havre bore a tombstone representing the bill reading: “Not amendable, not negotiable: Withdraw the El Khomri Law” — referring to Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri.
The draft law, aimed at boosting hiring after a decade of nearly 10-percent unemployment and slow but corrosive economic decline, relaxes rules around the 35-hourworkweek and leaves workers less protected fromlayoffs.
Determined to defend worker protections, union activists have staged months of protests and targeted the strategic fuel industry in recent days, causing gasoline shortages. The country’s two main oil ports were blocked Thursday and only two of France’s eight refineries were working, according to Francis Duseux, the head of the UFIP oil industry lobby.
Protesters took to the streets in several cities, and in Paris, they were met by waves of tear gas as police fought bands of violent masked marchers. Police detained 77 people as tens of thousands marched from the Bastille plaza through eastern Paris.
Members of the CGT union, leading the protests, remain angry that the government forced the bill through the lower house of parliament without a vote because of division in the Socialist majority.
“Valls is hardening his tone? Well we’re hardening our tone, too!” an organizer shouted into a loudspeaker at the Normandy Bridge, in northern France, where some 200 to 300 trade unionists and other protesters gathered to block traffic.
The union activists then made their way into Le Havre, waving red flags, a percussion band leading the way. At least 10,000 dock workers and others poured into an esplanade in front of Le Havre city hall, setting off smoke bombs and threatening bystanders. They tossed powerful fireworks into the fountains, sending plumes of water rising into the air as the square reverberated with explosions.
The demonstration was rowdy at times — one AP journalist was egged and the protesters pelted the mayor’s office with paint bombs— yetprotesters took care to stay off the manicured lawn. One demonstrator was spotted urinating against the mayor’s office beside bright yellow graffiti reading: “Hollande, Valls, Resign.”
Valls insisted the bill is “good for workers” and small businesses, and he argued that many of its critics are ill-informed of its contents.
In addition to loosening rules about the 35-hour workweek, the bill makes it easier to fire workers in times of economic downturn, and it weakens the power of unions to set working conditions across an entire sector.
Two months of protests escalated over the past week as unions targeted the sensitive oil industry, blocking fuel depots and refineries.
The government has started using its strategic fuel reserves and forcing depots to reopen, but supplies remained spotty Thursday, with long lines and caps on purchases.
Drivers endured long waits to reach gas pumps, railing at the strikes, the government and the overall funk in France.