Workers revolt

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

French labor unions have called a massive general strike for next week to protest France’s new youth labor law. More than 1.5 million people in cities across the country demonstrated against the law last week. Some of the protests turned violent, but French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said he would not be swayed by the unrest. The new measure, de Villepin said, would reduce unemployment by letting employers grant fire-at-will contracts to workers under 26. But opponents, who also pledged not to back down, called the reform the first step toward a broader erosion of France’s strict protections for workers. “France is going to get more and more unhappy,” predicted French pollster Gael Sliman, “with more and more people taking to the streets.”