Transport disruption ahead of Euro 2016

Unions call for fresh strikes

PARIS, May 30, (Agencies): France braced Monday for severe disruption to trains and flights less than two weeks before Euro 2016, as unions called fresh strikes in their battle to have labour reforms scrapped.

The fresh industrial unrest which caused petrol shortages and travel delays across the country last week was set to hit transport just days before fans begin arriving for the start of the football championships on June 10.

Meanwhile, Paris tourism chiefs voiced fears that the strikes and mass demonstrations that have frequently descended into violence were putting off visitors to one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

“The scenes of guerilla-type action in the middle of Paris, beamed around the world, reinforce the feeling of fear and misunderstanding” among potential visitors still anxious after the November 2015 terror attacks which killed 130 people in Paris, the tourist board said. President Francois Hollande and the Socialist government are standing firm against the hardline CGT union’s demand that it withdraw the planned reforms.

After failing to paralyse the country with blockades of refineries and fuel depots last week, the union has responded by calling for strikes on the national rail network beginning Tuesday and on the Paris Metro from Thursday. Air travellers are also set to face more cancellations and delays.

After weeks of trading insults, CGT leader Philippe Martinez revealed he had received a phone call from Prime Minister Manuel Valls to discuss the bitter standoff.

Martinez refused to reveal what they had discussed in Saturday’s call but told BFMTV: “The fact that he deigns to call the spokesman of France’s biggest union rather than denigrate him is a good sign.”

The union leader insisted he had

adopted in 2014, could eventually lead to sanctions such as a suspension of Poland’s voting rights in the EU’s executive.

“The procedure that is currently being used against us is a non-treaty procedure, a made-up one, and it can be challenged in the Court of Justice of the European Union at any moment,” said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the Law and Justice party (PiS).

“If it gets fierce, we will do this,” he been ready to negotiate “from the start” but stressed that the reform must be withdrawn before talks could begin. Six of France’s eight oil refineries were still halted or running at reduced capacity due to union action.

However, despite parts of western France still suffering from severe shortages, supplies were gradually returning to petrol stations after police cleared blockades on Friday.

Strikes continued at oil terminals in the southern city of Marseille and at the terminal in the northern port of Le Havre, which supplies kerosene to Paris’s two main airports. A skeleton service is allowing some supplies to get through.

Aviation unions have called for stoppages next weekend and Air France pilots voted Monday to go on strike for at least six days in June in a separate dispute over productivity targets, which could spark added chaos for visitors to Euro 2016.

The measures at the heart of the dispute are aimed at injecting more flexibility into France’s famously-rigid labour market by making it easier to hire and fire employees.

Companies would also be able to negotiate terms and conditions with their workers rather than be bound by industry-wide agreements.

Unemployment

But the unions say the moves will erode job security and fail to bring down unemployment which is stuck at just under 10 percent.

Unions are furious that the government rammed the reforms through the lower house of parliament without a vote.

They have called for another national day of rallies and strikes on June 14, the day that the Senate begins examining the law.

Despite the disruption caused to their daily lives, nearly half of French

told the Do Rzeczy weekly in an interview published on Monday.

The row stems from changes Poland’s new government imposed on the country’s constitutional court late last year that increased the size of majorities required for rulings and changed the order in which cases are heard. The EU said those changes undermined the court’s independence.

EU and Polish officials have met several people still support the union’s call, a poll showed.

Forty-six percent want the government to scrap the reforms, according to the poll in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, while 46 percent think they should be changed.

The conflict comes a year before presidential elections in which Hollande is considering seeking a second term despite popularity ratings that are among the lowest for a post-war French leader.

Cancellations

French GNI trade association said in a statement last week it feared “massive” booking cancellations by foreign tourists.

“A strike of that scope a few weeks before Euro 2016 and at the heart of the tourist season is more than unacceptable,” it said.

The tourist board issued the warning as French authorities were due to launch a new campaign later in the day to bolster the appeal of the French capital to foreign visitors.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Ile-de-France region President Valerie Pecresse are to join forces at the Eiffel Tower to promote Paris as a safe and attractive destination.

France, which is seeking to revive its economy, is heavily dependent on tourism, which generates over 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product and over 13 percent of that of the Ile-deFrance region, which includes Paris.

Data published by national statistics office INSEE this month showed that nearly six months after the Paris attacks, foreign visitors still shun the French capital, with the number of their nightly hotel stays in the Paris region down 9.1 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

Hotel stays by Japanese visitors were down 56 percent in the first

times to discuss possible solutions to the standoff, but without success.

Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski signalled last week that Warsaw was ready to give some ground to end the crisis.

Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Monday he hoped the European Commission would stop the procedure. “There are no grounds to start a procedure quarter compared to the same period in 2015, while Russians were down by 35 percent and Chinese 13.9 percent, the Paris region tourist board said.

This is worrying for local authorities and professionals as about 500,000 people in the Ile-de-France region have jobs linked to tourism, making it the biggest industry there.

The Nov 13 attacks, when Islamist militants killed 130 people in a spate of shootings and suicide bombings, cost French hoteliers an estimated 270 million euros ($300 million) in lost revenue last year, of which Paris alone accounted for 146 million, research firm MKG Group said.

Hopes of a significant recovery in 2016 for Paris hoteliers were derailed by the Brussels attacks in March. Figures from MKG put annual revenue per hotel room in Paris down by around 10 percent so far in 2016.

About 2.5 million spectators are expected for Euro 2016 which starts on June 10 for a month. The CGT labour union has called for another big national street protest in Paris on June 14. Air France pilots voted overwhelmingly Monday for what could be extended strike action in June, their union said, casting another shadow over France’s hosting of Euro 2016.

The SNPL, the main pilots’ union, told AFP its members had voted by 68 percent for a strike of more than six days in protest at cuts to their wages.

“There is bound to be action in June,” said Emmanuel Mistrali of SNPL Air France, without saying when. The SNPL still needs to formally announce a strike, but major disruption to flights would have an impact on foreign fans trying to attend matches at Euro 2016, which kicks off on June 10.

It comes against a background of a wave of strike action in protest at the Socialist government’s labour reforms.

of penalising Poland,” he told private broadcaster TVN24. (RTRS)

3 Ukrainian soldiers killed:

Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a fresh “escalation” of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces, Kiev said Monday.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said fighting had intensified compared to a month ago and accused rebels of “actively using heavy weapons” including a Grad rocket launcher.

“Over the past 24 hours, as a result of the hostilities, three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and eight more wounded”, he said. The spokesman said the fighting took place around the eastern rebel hub of Donetsk and the governmentcontrolled town of Mariupol.

There has been an uptick in violence in the east of Ukraine, with seven troops reported dead on Tuesday and five more over the weekend.

Kiev and the West have accused Russia of buttressing the rebels and sending in regular troops across the border, claims Moscow has repeatedly denied.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said last month it could take years to end the conflict, which has claimed more than 9,300 lives since it erupted in April 2014.

Earlier this month, France and Germany held fresh talks with Kiev and Moscow as part of efforts to try to seek a lasting peace deal but no consensus was reached over elections in the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. (AFP)