Posted on 03/28/2006 7:54:52 AM PST by quantim
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of French transport workers, teachers and other employees staged a one-day national strike or marched through the streets on Tuesday to try to force the government to abandon a new youth job law.
The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors until the evening, commuters faced delays on trains and Paris underground rail services and airports were hit by stoppages in protest against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's CPE First Job Contract.
Villepin, 52, stood firm over the plan but the strong turnout increased pressure on him to amend or withdraw the measure and calls for his resignation are growing.
"We're demanding the complete withdrawal of the CPE. You can't treat people like slaves. Giving all the power to the bosses is going too far," said Gregoire de Oliviera, a 21-year-old student in Paris.
Villepin hopes the CPE will reduce youth unemployment from almost 23 percent, but union and student leaders say it will create a generation of "throwaway workers" because it makes it easier to dismiss employees under 26 in a trial two-year period.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Paris and organisers said 250,000 people took to the streets in Marseille, where banners read "We will not give up" and protesters daubed "Anti-CPE" on their faces.
In Grenoble, in the east, up to 60,000 people protested and 40,000 people protested in Pau in the southwest, unions said.
There were reports of isolated skirmishes but not on the same scale as violence that marred protests last week.
Villepin, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election, faces his biggest challenge since becoming prime minister last May.
Business leaders fear France's image will be damaged if protests continue and that investment and tourism could suffer, particularly because the crisis has erupted so soon after rioting by angry youths in French city suburbs late last year.
VILLEPIN APPEALS TO UNIONS
Unions refused to meet Villepin for talks on Wednesday but he renewed the invitation, telling parliament he was ready to compromise on two points -- the length of the trial period and the terms for giving notice.
"Useful time remains, let's use it for dialogue. But there is one thing that I will not accept ... that is to remain with my arms folded given youth unemployment about which you have never spoken before," he told jeering opposition deputies.
Villepin, a former foreign minister, also faces pressure from inside the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) headed by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a likely rival for the 2007 presidential race.
The UMP parliamentary group on Tuesday backed Sarkozy's proposal that the government not rush to enforce the law and so leave the door open for further negotiations.
President Jacques Chirac, who has backed Villepin during the crisis, cancelled a trip to northern France planned for Thursday because of the situation, sources close to the president said.
Opinion polls show almost two-thirds of French people oppose the CPE. Even so, commuters were frustrated by the strike which caused delays on many rail lines.
"Why do you have to make all French suffer," French traveller Patricia said at Charles de Gaulle airport, where several flights were cancelled. "Fine that you're against the CPE. But why block the whole country, rather than talk?"
Mass street demonstrations are closely watched in France after protests over pensions reforms in 1995 which were widely credited with losing the conservatives the snap election called two years later -- in part on Villepin's advice.
Fears of a broader revolt have been fuelled by the incidents in Paris last week including looting, clashes with riot police and the mugging of student demonstrators by hardcore elements.
Our US Ambassador to France this morning on Fox News that the French Riot Police are considered the most effective and most brutal in Europe and possibly the world.
How funny! Their military is a bunch of wimps, but when it comes to keeping their own people in line, they've got the most brutal riot police in Europe.
That sounds like Communist behavior. Maybe we're giving them too much credit calling them Socialists.
Don't misunderstand. I am not at all sympathetic with the protestors. They're getting what they asked for/voted for.
"Looks to me like a gang of Muzzies beating on whitey."
I see your point, but still...
Looks like Idiot A kicking Idiot B.
Say La Vee (Pardon my French:P )
In Switzerland they use liquid sludge from the sewer works.
And in Japan.....they have high pressure water guns that fire a slug of about 2 Kg of water at high speed....can also be mixed with pepper mixture for added effect.
Yep!
At first I thought that pic was actually showing the French fighting, I was in shock. It seemed like a fight without their usual method of running away. But then if you look closer you can see none of them are actually hitting the guy on the ground and in fact seem to be buckling to their knees from fear except for that guy with the white sneakers who appears to be not kicking but falling backwards from someone pulling him from behind.
Why would a Frenchman want to police this socialist paradise?
What's the frequency, Dan?
I'm sure it's a beautiful country. I've just gotten extremely particular where my $$ goes any more.
Make a wish.
Where is that pesky handle?
Teen battering ram.
Damn, there goes my vacation spot.
It was a crappy bottle of wine anyway.
Same here .. which is why I have been to France yet
I'm hoping they will can their ways sometime before I die
Very good rewind.
Planning to live to be as old as Mo(ses)?
:^P
LOL!
Even the French throw it away!
True. No matter how much how you look at it though, this is still pretty damn funny!!
They do have a point on worker treatment, but still bosses have the right to fire lazy workers....
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