France faces strike threat

A POWERFUL union leader threatened France with a general strike yesterday over a contested jobs plan that sparked violent protests in Paris over the weekend.

Student and employee unions have given Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin until tonight to withdraw the measure designed to increase job hirings among the young but seen by critics as an erosion of workers’ rights that will not produce solid employment.

“If these dynamics continue, I think we will quickly get the withdrawal” of the measure, Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, said on France-Inter radio. “If the government persists, we can envisage working together toward a national strike day.”