Flights cancelled as French labour reforms spark more demos

Protesters took to the streets across France on Thursday for fresh demonstrations against the Socialist government's labour reforms, although opposition to the measures appeared to be weakening.

Philippe Martinez (L), leader of the hardline CGT union driving the demonstrations (file) Reuters/Jacky Naegelen

Though the controversial reforms have been voted into law, unions staged their 14th national day of protest.

The country's civil aviation authority has advised airlines serving Paris two airports to cancel 15 percent of their flights on Thursday.

Irish no-frills airline Ryanair announced that it had cancelled dozens of flights to or through France because of the strike. Rival EasyJet has announced the grounding of more than 60 flights.

Demonstrators also marched through the eastern city of Belfort where the government is locked in a battle with French train-building giant Alstom over the future of its production site there. Alstom has announced plans to close the historic factory that assembled France's first high-speed TGV train due to a lack of orders, but the Socialist government has vowed to come up with a plan to save the plant and its 400 jobs.

Turnout for the separate labour law demonstrations, which are also expected to take place in the cities of Lyon and Marseille, will be closely watched.

From hundreds of thousands of protesters in the early days of the demonstrations, the numbers dwindled to just 35,000 for the last protests on 5 July.

Philippe Martinez, leader of the hardline CGT union driving the demonstrations, has called for workers to keep up the struggle at the company level, "fighting tooth and nail to stop it (the law) crossing the threshold."