French govt to stand firm on labour reform

PARIS: The French government will stand by its labour reform plans, it said on Sunday, while resuming talks with unions in an effort to end widespread protests before the country hosts the Euro 2016 soccer tournament next month.

The hardline CGT union has organised street protests, train strikes and refinery blockades to pressure the government to scrap plans that would make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was quoted as saying on Sunday that he is determined not to join a long list of politicians who have conceded defeat to protesters.

"If we gave in to the street and to CGT because we were obsessed over the short term by 2017 (presidential elections), we would lose everything," Valls told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

In the mid-1990s Prime Minister Alain Juppe triggered France’s worst unrest in decades because he would not budge on pension reform but he eventually backed down after weeks of industrial action and protests.

The dispute has sent Valls’ approval rating to 24 percent, its lowest since he became Prime Minister, according to a poll conducted by BVA for Orange et iTELE.  Juppe resigned as prime minister in 1996 after his rating dropped below 25 percent.