PARIS (Sputnik) — French truck drivers are blocking highways and fuel depots in a strike against the labor reforms approved by President Emmanuel Macron last week, according to media reports. The protests are simultaneously taking place in Caen, Rouen, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon and Marseille. Labor unions have pledged to increase pressure on the government by blocking more strategic sites.
#France Isn't it illegal to use trucks to physically block access to oil refineries? https://t.co/7LHkw7wqn4 via @Figaro_Economie
— Paris Writers News (@ParisWriters) 25 сентября 2017 г.
#France: Unions strike today against #Macron’s anti-labor reforms https://t.co/ISpaStzLlp #LoiTravailXXL 🎥@PartageSC pic.twitter.com/6taITGT5u0
— ubique (@PersonalEscrito) 21 сентября 2017 г.
The drivers are threatening to paralyze the country by blocking strategic sites such as fuel depots. They are protesting the reform since it offers businesses more flexibility in dismissing people and weakens the role of trade unions. The reform also allows any given business to negotiate certain elements of remuneration, such as seniority bonuses or the 13th salary, with the workers directly, while previously they were set for the whole professional field.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Macron signed five decrees on labor law reform, aimed at helping small and medium-size enterprises. The trade unions have been generally critical of the reform.
