2006 labour protests in France - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 2006 youth protests in France occurred throughout France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

during February

February 2006

February 2006: ← – January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December - →...

, March

March 2006

March 2006 is the third month of that year. It began on a Wednesday and 31 days later, ended on a Friday.-1 March 2006 :*Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announces that the 2006 general elections will be held in the second week of May, from May 6 to May 13...

, and April 2006 as a result of opposition to a measure set to deregulate labour

Manual labour

Manual labour , manual or manual work is physical work done by people, most especially in contrast to that done by machines, and also to that done by working animals...

. Young people were the primary participants in the protests as the bill would have directly affected their future jobs in a way that they considered negative.

The labour bill

The controversial bill, entitled "Loi pour l'égalité des chances" ("Equal Opportunity Law"), created a new job contract, the Contrat première embauche (CPE - First Employment Contract or Beginning Workers Contract).

Under this job contract, which aimed to encourage the creation of new jobs, it would have been easier, during a contract's first two years, for workers under twenty-six years old to be fired

Termination of employment

-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...

. It would have allowed employers the opportunity to terminate employment of workers under twenty-six without any reason, within their first two years of employment. Those opposed to the First Employment Contract were worried that it could compromise job security

Job security

Job security is the probability that an individual will keep his or her job; a job with a high level of job security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of becoming unemployed.-Factors affecting job security:...

, encourage social pressure with a view to lowering wages, and impede employees in having legal recourse

Legal recourse

A legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.* A lawsuit if the issue is a matter of civil law* Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before a dispute can go to court...

in cases of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...

or other abuse, since this could lead to their subsequently being fired.

Proponents of the bill argued that France's tightly regulated employment market discourages French businesses from employing staff, which has led to France suffering high unemployment. High unemployment, especially for young immigrants, was seen as one of the driving forces behind the 2005 civil unrest in France and this unrest mobilized the perceived public urgency for the First Employment Contract. Youths are particularly at risk as they have been locked out of the same career opportunities as older workers, contributing to both a rise in tensions amongst the economically disenfranchised underclass, and, some claim, a brain drain

Brain drain

Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...

of graduates leaving for better opportunities in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The French population was roughly split on the issue of whether the First Employment Contract should be implemented. The contract was first proposed after the civil unrest

2005 civil unrest in France

The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...

that occurred in France in October and November 2005. French Prime Minister

Prime Minister of France

The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...

Dominique de Villepin

Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....

's rating dropped to a four-month low of forty-two percent, largely because of the recent protests against the bill. He stated though that he had the backing of French President Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

. Later on, polls in L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...

and Paris-Match displayed a swing of the population behind protesters - around 70% were against the CPE law when it was promulgated by president Chirac.

The bill also included the possibility of manual labour apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

s for 14-year-olds, suspension of family welfare in cases of students skipping school

Truancy

Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions...

(a measure long in the programme of the far-right National Front party

Front National

Front National can mean:* Front National , a French political party* Front National , a World War II French Resistance group* Front National , a Belgian political party...

), and night labour being permitted for youths as young as 15 years old (as compared to 16 years old before).

February

Protests against the bill originally occurred before the bill was approved by Dominique de Villepin

Dominique de Villepin

Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....

. On February 7, between 200,000 and 400,000 people took part in 187 demonstrations. Some universities, include Rennes, were also occupied during February.

Early March

Over a million took part in protests on March 7. On March 9, around 38 universities were on strike

16 March

Protests across France on March 16 led to widespread disruptions. Approximately one hundred bicyclists barricaded streets around the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

in protests unrelated to the labour contract. (The protest around the Louvre concerned the lack of sports teachers in schools.) Another hundred protesters descended on City Hall in Rennes

Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...

, refusing to leave. Other, mostly peaceful, protests occurred throughout the country, in cities such as Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

. Many universities, including the University of Toulouse

University of Toulouse

The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...

, were forced to close on March 16 as some wanted them to remain open and others wanted them closed during the large protests.

18 March

Media attention focused on the violent element of the demonstrations in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

on March 18, when as many as 700,000 protesters converged on the city's Place de la Nation. Once the protesters departed from the meeting, a few dozen rioters began to torch cars and vandalize store fronts as police were called in to calm the situation. To suppress the crowd, police officers began to spray tear gas.

In the evening, new clashes occurred on the Place de la Sorbonne, between a hundred demonstrators and the police, until 1 am.

A protester from that night, Cyril Ferez, a trade unionist from the Sud-PTT

Sud-PTT

Sud-PTT is a French trade union created in fall 1988 after the exclusion of more radical elements from the CFDT-PTT. CFDT is a union generally considered as the most open for negotiation and reforms. It is sometimes criticized for this approach, sometimes by its own members...

union, trampled by riot police, was in a coma for three weeks after skirmishes in the Place de la Nation, Paris.

That day saw 156 people being arrested in Paris.

Protesters in Marseille

Marseille

were also sprayed with tear gas after some of them climbed Marseille's City Hall and replaced a French flag with a flag that proclaimed "anticapitalism."

Throughout the rest of the country, less violent protests occurred. In the estimated 160 protests organized around the country, police estimated that half a million students and labourers participated. Organizers estimated the number was closer to 1.5 million.

Students (including high school students) demonstrations began to become daily, and often were the site of clashes with the police.

21 March

After large demonstrations and subsequent riots on the 16th and 18 March, on the 21st the Dijon students' union called for a general strike., as demanded by left-wing papers such as Libération

Libération

Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...

. A meeting that day of various labour and student groups agreed for another 'day of action' against the law, including strikes, demonstrations and university occupations across the country.

23 March

Riots erupted again after a day of relative calm in several cities in France. According to the French national ministry of education, universities had continued their strike and 21 universities out of 84 were entirely blocked by students. In total, 67 universities were either on strike or blockage.

28 March

CPE opponents convened a fourth national 'day of action' against the law on 28 March, including strikes, demonstrations and university occupations across France. Strikes disrupted rail and air transport, public education and mail services while between 1.055 million people (according to police estimates) and 2.71 million (according to union estimates) marched against the law. Much of the discrepancy in crowd estimates is in Paris where the police estimated 92,000 demonstrators while unions estimated 700,000. Whatever the sources, this is double the number that on the March 16 demonstration, and more than during the December 1995 protests

1995 strikes in France

The 1995 strikes in France were a series of general strikes in France, mostly in the public sector in late 1995. The strikes received great popular support despite paralyzing the country's transportation infrastructure...

against the reform of pensions laws. 600 persons were arrested by the police Police repression also took place in minor towns, such as Lons-le-Saunier

Lons-le-Saunier

Lons-le-Saunier is a commune and capital of the Jura department in eastern France.-Geography:The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the "premier plateau" of the Jura massif...

(Jura) or Lannion

Lannion

Lannion is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a subpréfecture of Côtes-d'Armor, the capital of Trégor and the center of an urban area of almost 60,000 inhabitants.-Population:...

(Côtes d'Armor).

4 April

In total 3.1 million people (according to the CGT) or 1 million (according to the police) people turned out to protest the law throughout the country, while rail and air transport were affected.

11 April

The CPE was scrapped by Chirac on 10 April under the pressure of ongoing protest and blockade across France, though some protests continue against the law of which it was part (the loi pour l'égalité des chances, or LEC). Protests were smaller in scale as the movement against the CPE split into those that wanted to fight the LEC and those that considered the victory against the CPE to be an acceptable compromise. Because of this split, and because of the universities' Easter holidays, the movement lost its momentum and within a week of the law's withdrawal, the major acts of protest, such as university occupations, had essentially ceased. By 18 April the students at every one of the blocked universities had either voted to reopen immediately, or were on holiday with no blockade planned afterward.

University occupations

During the dispute, numerous student bodies went on strike, or occupied parts of their faculties. Due to police counter-attacks at the Sorbonne, an initial occupation was repulsed - yet the national student federation UNEF

Union nationale des étudiants de france

The National Union of Students of France is the main national students' union in France....

claimed that the number of occupations carried on increasing - by the end of March, 68 of France's 89 universities were on strike according to UNEF.

As a result of the blockades, many universities had to delay the end of their planned university year and their exams. Exams originally scheduled for the end of May were frequently delayed until the end of June, while those in June were delayed until September.

Detentions

According to the Collectif Assistance Juridique (CAJ) independent group, a total of 4,500 people were arrested during the events. Among them, 1,950 were kept in garde à vue
Garde à vue
Garde à vue is a 1981 French film directed by Claude Miller and starring Romy Schneider, Michel Serrault, Lino Ventura and Guy Marchand. It was based on the British novel Brainwash, by John Wainwright....

and 635 prosecution cases opened. Less than 15% of the arrested people have therefore been presented to the magistrates, due to insufficient evidence of alleged legal violations. The CAJ note that many of the people presented before the courts had no previous criminal record and were far from the profile of "criminal rioters". They included many leaders of the movement, in particular outside Paris. A March 24, 2006 internal administrative order asked the magistrates not to be too lenient on their judgments. 42% of the persons presented before courts passed in immediate comparution, a specific (and controversial) procedure, which allow them to be judged on the spot. During the 1994 demonstrations against the CIP, a student law prepared by Balladur

Édouard Balladur

Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...

's government, a 1 000 persons only had been arrested, although the clashes had been more violent. Although Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

stated on March 16 that his "priority was to arrest casseurs" (rioters), the independent CAJ (Judicial Assistance Group) noted that the vast majority of arrestations hadn't been of on-the-spot witnessed violence (flagrant délit) and that many were contested. For example, on March 31 a US citizen visiting Paris was detained by the police, while on April 7 an old man getting out of a supermarket was also detained. Furthermore, many young people from the suburbs

Banlieue

In francophone areas, banlieues are the "outskirts" of a city: the zone around a city that is under the city's rule.Banlieues are translated as "suburbs", as these are also residential areas on the outer edge of a city, but the connotations of the term "banlieue" in France can be different from...

were blocked from demonstrating in Paris. According to the government, this was to impede turmoils in the capital, but critics such as the CAJ have spoken of a negation of presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

The presumption of innocence, sometimes referred to by the Latin expression Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, is the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many...

and of "racial and social discrimination", since some categories of the population — mainly youth living in housing projects, those accused of having taken part in the riots in autumn 2005

2005 civil unrest in France

— were blocked from exercising their civil rights of demonstrating against a law that affected them as well as other categories of the population. These blockings in suburbs' train stations have provoked in some cases clashes with the police, for example in Savigny-sur-Orge

Savigny-sur-Orge

Savigny-sur-Orge is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 19.1 km from the center of Paris in the département of Essonne.During the 2005 civil unrest in France, Savigny was the first city to implement a curfew...

, in Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....

or in Les Ulis

Les Ulis

Les Ulis is a commune in the Essonne department located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is from the center of Paris.Inhabitants of Les Ulis are known as Ulissiens.- Location :...

... "There is no evidence which permit us to establish a parallel between the young rioters of November and the disturbing elements of this spring", notes the CAJ report, countering the Interior Minister's claims. Furthermore, police abuse was reported on a number of cases, including Cyril Ferez, a trade union member who entered coma state for several weeks following the March 18 demonstration. In Caen

Caen

Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

Charlotte entered coma for a day; Victor had two ribs broken, etc. A three year old child was placed 24 hours in observation after having inhalated gas. On March 16, the Parisian préfecture de police announced that 18 demonstrators had been injured. The IGS

IGS

- Computers/Video Games :*IGS Go server*iGamespot, former professional MLG Halo 2 team*Information Gateway Services, an Internet Service Provider*Information Global Service, video game company...

(internal affairs

Internal affairs (law enforcement)

The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...

department) was charged of Cyril Ferez' case (who was in coma for several weeks) and litigation was initiated against police officers allegedly excessively brutal and violent during arrests. Additionally, cooperation between the police forces and the trade union "service orders" (SO, in charge of the demonstrations) was observed, including handing-over of several demonstrators to the police by the trade union's SO. Finally, the CAJ note the disproportion of sentences toward young demonstrators, while others acts of vandalism

Vandalism

Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...

currently committed by farmers or viticulturists were more lightly punished. It thus alluded to this Alsatian

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

mayor accused of having burned 14 travel trailer

Travel trailer

A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent . It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation, without relying on a motel or hotel, and enables them to stay in places...

but who was condemned only to six months on parole

Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

, contrasting with the sentences given to demonstrators (for example, a high school student condemned to 41 days of jail in Fleury-Mérogis

Fleury-Mérogis

Fleury-Mérogis is a commune in the Essonne department in northern France, in the southern suburbs of Paris. The commune has the Fleury-Mérogis Prison, France's and Europe's largest prison.Inhabitants of Fleury-Mérogis are known as Floriacumois....

because he had burnt two garbage cans before his school).