French unions protest over transport strike bill

By Staff
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PARIS, July 31 (Reuters) French trade unions held nationwide protests today against a government bill aimed at introducing restrictions on their right to strike in the dispute-prone public transport sector.

The rallies, planned in dozens of cities, are the first widespread union protests against one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's planned summer reforms, which also include a series of tax cuts and toughening sentences for repeat offenders.

''Useless! Scandalous! Sneakily voted in the middle of summer!'' several hundred protesters chanted near the national assembly lower house of parliament in Paris, where lawmakers were debating the bill.

Police said some 2,000 people were at the Paris rally, while organisers put the number at 4,000.

Sarkozy promised during this year's election campaign that he would introduce new rules compelling transport workers to give 48 hours' notice of any strike and forcing them to hold a secret ballot on lengthy stoppages.

''The right to strike in our country is a constitutional right, it is an individual right,'' Jean-Claude Mailly, the head of the FO trade union, told Europe 1 radio.

''It therefore seems logical to us that a worker can choose up until the last moment, depending on negotiations, whether they should participate or not participate in a strike.'' PUBLIC BACKS TOUGHER RULES Opinion polls suggest the public backs the tougher strike rules, which the government has presented as an attempt to protect workers from wildcat walkouts.

The head of the influential CGT union said there was no need for the two-day notice period. He said that if the law was passed his group would ask the Constitutional Council, which can vet legislation, to review whether it violated the constitution.

''It is above all an intimidatory measure aimed at pressuring workers,'' CGT chief Bernard Thibault told newspaper Le Parisien.

Today's protests were unlikely to change the outcome in parliament, where Sarkozy's centre-right bloc have a majority.

With many French already on their summer holidays, unions admitted their rallies might see a thin turnout.

''It is obviously not easy to mobilise people on July 31, but we wanted to make a statement,'' FO's Mailly said.

The government could face tougher resistance after the holidays if it seeks to expand the new rules to sectors other than land transport, the area dealt with in this bill.

''There are no taboos,'' Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand told RTL radio when asked if the measures could be expanded to air and sea transport.

Thibault did not rule out public transport strikes in the autumn -- when France will host the rugby union World Cup.

''If the calendar of negotiations that will start with the minimum service in companies goes full steam ahead as of September and the content is provocative ... it is obvious that there will be conflicts in the autumn, World Cup or not,'' he told Le Parisien.

REUTERS JT KP2150

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