French unions gearing for more strikes

PARIS -- French unions seeking to overturn an unpopular labor law are set to intensify their protests after a week of strikes and blockades caused gas stations in many regions of the country to run dry.

By the end of this week, the national railroad, the Paris metro, ports and air traffic controllers will all be on strike to some degree.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls in a series of weekend interviews said the government will not back down on the labor law or the contentious article 2 that lets companies negotiate labor contracts outside industrywide accords. "There will be no withdrawal of the text, no withdrawal of article 2," Valls said in a roundtable interview with Le Parisien readers in the newspaper's Saturday edition.

"France must show that it's capable of reforming," Valls said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. Valls said he spoke by phone on Saturday with union leaders, including with Philippe Martinez, the head of the General Confederation of Labor, which has been leading the opposition to the labor law.

Four unions, including the confederation, have called for an unlimited strike at the French National Railway Company starting Tuesday. The confederation has also called for two strikes on Thursday -- a stoppage at the Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports, which manages Paris' metro and buses, and a 24-hour strike at France's ports. The National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions-Air Navigation Control Engineers union of air traffic controllers has urged a strike June 3-5.

All the strikes are linked to labor disputes specific to those sectors, but are also aimed at forcing a withdrawal of the labor law. Another union, Workers' Force, has called for transport strikes to start June 10, the opening day of the European soccer championships, which France is hosting.

There have been scattered strikes at the railway and metro lines over the past months, and in general more than half of trains have still run.

The situation at France's gas stations has improved since last week, when nationwide there were long lines of motorists waiting to fill up. About 20 percent of gas stations were facing shortages over the weekend, down from 30 percent at the end of last week, the government said.

Valls held a meeting Saturday with energy executives. Transport Minister Alain Vidalies later said that blockades at all but one of the country's 200 fuel depots were removed, and the government would continue to order the police to lift them. But only two of France's eight refineries were fully operating.

Not all French unions are opposed to the labor law, which was watered down in March after an earlier round of protests.

The French Democratic Confederation of Labor, which vies with the General Confederation of Labor as France's largest union, is in favor of the law in its current form.

President Francois Hollande has largely stayed out of the debate, though he supported Valls at a news conference Friday.

"We can't accept that there are unions that dictate the law," Hollande said in Ise-Shima, Japan, where he was attending a G-7 leaders' meeting. "As head of state, I want this reform. It fits with everything we have done for four years. I want us to go right to the end."

A Section on 05/30/2016

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