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TrekkieMage
Office Junkie
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
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 Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:21 pm French Labor Law Protests Turn Violent |
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| Quote: | French labor law protests turn violent
AP: Police, civilians hurt in clashes; suspects detained
PARIS, France (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of people across France protested labor legislation on Saturday, prompting violent clashes between demonstrators and police.
Amid scattered bonfires, bottle-throwing and smoke filled barricaded streets, the clashes resulted in four injured police officers and 12 hurt protesters, Paris police told The Associated Press. Fifty-nine people were detained by evening, police said.
"Throw away the job contract, don't throw away the youth!" chanted students who were shaking tambourines during the march in Paris. Many of the protesters were students and union workers upset about CPE, a new labor law that they fear will allow employers to fire younger workers more easily. (Watch protesters charge riot police -- 1:53)
Many protesters wore plastic bags to illustrate their feeling that the new law reduces young people to disposable workers.
Saturday's mass protests were among the largest of this week's demonstrations -- including Thursday's marches by tens of thousands -- which have partially closed or shut down two-thirds of the nation's universities. There was also violence at Thursday's protests, and police retaliated with tear gas and rubber pellets, AP said.
Saturday's protests reached every corner of France, AP reported, with organizers citing 160 marches from the small provincial town of Rochefort in the southwest to the major city of Lyon in the southeast.
In Paris, police monitored the march from cobblestone alleys, bracing for violence after clashes earlier this week in the Left Bank student quarter, according to AP.
CPE was created to give employers more incentive to create jobs by allowing them to hire workers under age 26 for a two-year trial.
Supporters say it encourages employers to hire younger workers. Critics say employees would have no job security during the trial period and that the law gives employers more flexibility in laying off their younger workers.
The law grew out the government's search to do something about youth unemployment after the suburban riots across France last fall.
With nearly a quarter of French young people out of work, supporters of the law believe it is better to have an uncertain job than no job at all.
But in France, with its elaborate safety net of job protection, many think just the opposite.
"It jeopardizes basically the employment rights and security and, basically, it really puts into question the French tradition of having a secure job," said Nabila Ramdani, a university professor who led a handful of her students to protest the law.
Still, opinion pollsters say the French know the economy must be changed.
"Really, people want to change, but they are afraid to change," said Carine Marce of Sofres opinion polls. "People are very pessimistic."
CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 CNN. |
Source
And it was just last fall that they had those huge protests in France. I don't know a whole lot about French politics, but it's looking like they're having a problem over there with keeping protests peaceful. But I don't really know enough to form a really educated opinion...
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webtaz99
Commodore
Joined: 13 Nov 2003
Posts: 1229
Location: The Other Side
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:00 pm |
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Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Frikkin' socialism.
-------signature-------
"History is made at night! Character is who you are in the dark." (Lord John Whorfin)
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