31 March 2016

Today (31st March 2016) more than one million people took part in public mobilisations and industrial action in France against proposed changes to labour laws.

The mobilisation was organised by the CGT and CGT-FO national trade union centres along with other groups.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary said:

The French government, and all politicians in the country, should heed the strong message from today’s mobilisation, and from the many other organisations which have expressed their concerns, over the impacts of the proposals from the moment they were first put forward by the government. The idea that weakening labour laws and fundamental protections for workers will somehow create more jobs has been tried before and it simply hasn’t worked,

Rallies, strike action and other forms of protest took place across the country, with activities in more than 200 different places reported.

The ITUC represents 180 million workers in 162 countries and territories and has 333 national affiliates.