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Nuclear power stations strike as French unions continue labour reform fight

Mass pickets blocked French roads and access to oil depots and other workplaces on Thursday and strikes hit all the countries nuclear power stations on the eighth day of action against the government's proposed labour reform. About a fifth of the country's service stations were running short of petrol, as thousands demonstrated in Paris and provincial towns and cities.

A mass picket at Vitrolles in the south of France on Thursday
A mass picket at Vitrolles in the south of France on Thursday AFP
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Masked youths clashed with police on the Paris demonstration against the labour reform.

Police fired teargas at about 100 protesters who broke away from the march to smash shop wondiws and parked cars.

In an unprecedented movement of labour unrest against a Socialist government, two major unions, backed by students' unions and left-wing groups, have pulled out the stops to defeat a labour reform they say will lead to "social dumping" because it allows companies to opt out of national agreements.

The largest union involved, the CGT, accused the government of "contempt and aggression" in its response to the protests, which have seen clashes between police and demonstrators and watercannon and pepper spray used against pickets.

Some key points of conflict were:

  • Strikes and pickets at oil refineries and depotsĀ continued on Thursday and a fifth of the country's service stations were reported to be either out of petrol or running low, although industry officials pointed out that this was partly because of panic-buying by motorists;

  • All 19 of France's nuclear power stationsĀ were on strike for the day, with the CGT claiming that 12 had reduced output overnight, while the power supply company RTE said there was no danger of power cuts;

  • The nuclear submarine factoryĀ and naval portĀ in Cherbourg were completely blockaded by pickets with only essential personnel going to work;

  • Main roadsĀ and bridgesĀ were partially or totally blocked in Caen, Le Havre and Rouen in the north, Toulouse and Perpignan in the south-west, NĆ®mes and Vitrolles in the south-east, and in Corsica, where oil depots were picketed for the first time since the protests began;

  • Rail transportĀ suffered little disruption on the second day of a strike over wages, while the CGT has called for a new strike on Paris regional transport from 2 June and a smaller union Sud-RATP a strike to coincide with the start of the Euro 2016 football tournament on 10 June.

  • Newspapers were not printed, apart from the Communist Party's L'HumanitĆ©, which printed a statement by CGT leader Philippe Martinez, leading editors of other papers to accuse the union of trying to force them to carry it.

Drivers queue for petrol in Paris
Drivers queue for petrol in Paris Reuters/Benoit Tessier

The disruption has had little effect on public support for the protests, according to an opinion poll published Thursday that showed 62 percent backing the movement, down three points a week ago.

There seemed to be some disarray in government ranks on the eve of the protests.

After Finance Minister Michel Sapin and Socialist parliamentary leader Bruno Le Roux indicated that the clause undermining national agreements might be changed, Prime Minister Manuel Valls ruled out any such move.

President FranƧois Hollande, in Japan for the G7 summit, backed Valls on Thursday, saying that his statement was "what needed to be said".

Ā 

A police officer uses pepper spray on a protester in Marseille
A police officer uses pepper spray on a protester in Marseille Boris Horvat/AFP

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