French unions threatened a one-day general strike and socialists
warned Sunday that protests would increase unless the government
rescinds a law weakening job protections for young people. Prime
Minister Dominique de Villepin said the measure will stand.
Protesters who have been demonstrating for weeks have urged
President Jacques Chirac against signing the measure into law.
Sixteen universities are on strike in protest over the labor
measure and dozens of others have been disrupted. The law is to
take effect in April if Chirac signs.
The law is meant to encourage employers to hire because they can
more easily fire. It allows for dismissal within the first two
years of employment without giving a reason. The French work code
contains rigorous standards for firing employees.
In the largest series of protests yet, 500,000 people rallied on
Saturday in some 160 French cities. At the Paris rally, police
loosed water cannons and tear gas on rioting students and activists
rampaged through a McDonald's and attacked store fronts.
The spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party, Julien Dray,
warned of bigger demonstrations if the government does not change
its position by Monday night.
"When youths take to the street, you don't know what can
happen," Dray told Radio-J. "By digging in its heels, the
government is creating the conditions for troubles (that can have)
dramatic consequences."
Union leaders said they would meet Monday to discuss a work
stoppage.
Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, said a one-day
national strike was possible if the government does not rescind the
measure. "If this momentum continues, I think we will quickly get
the withdrawal" of the measure, Thibault said.
De Villepin, in an interview published Sunday, insisted the jobs
law will ease unemployment and refused to withdraw it but said he
was ready to modify it.
"I am convinced it will work, create new jobs," Villepin told
the Citato magazine for high school students. "We must
give (it) a chance."
De Villepin said changes were possible in the measure.
"In the framework of the law, I hope we can work with (unions
and employers) to improve it and enrich it," he said.
The prime minister said he understood the concerns of the
opponents about the "anxiety of unemployment."
But he reiterated the need to lower the 23 percent unemployment
rate among the nation's youths, a figure that rises to some 50
percent in depressed suburban neighborhoods where unrest erupted
last year.
The magazine said the interview was conducted in written
question-answer form and reviewed Sunday by the prime minister's
office.
The government made clear Sunday it will not abandon the
measure.
"The door is open to dialogue," government spokesman
Jean-Francois Cope said on LCI television station, stopping short
of saying it could be dropped.
"Today, there is no question of not applying" the law, said
Bernard Accoyer, who heads the governing UMP party in the National
Assembly.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies March 20, 2006)
