French unions meet PM over youth jobs law

FRENCH unions and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin agreed to meet today over a contested jobs law as protesters clashed with police in Paris and other cities.

This is despite unions’ demands that the law be withdrawn before they will negotiate.

In Paris rioters overturned cars and set them on fire.

Mr de Villepin, facing escalating protests over the law, had invited the unions earlier in the day to no-holds-barred talks on the law. Five leading unions met to discuss the invitation and said they would meet him, but would refuse to negotiate unless the law is withdrawn first.

Mr de Villepin agreed to their terms and set a meeting for today. A stand-off heated up on Paris’ verdant Esplanade des Invalides, with riot police using tear gas on rowdy protesters who hurled chunks of concrete at police officers.

Some of the 23,000 marchers turned on each other, beating and kicking.

A phalanx of hundreds of riot police, three men deep, pressing forward to drive back the protesters, blocked off the ornate Alexandre III bridge. Dozens of people appeared injured and police said 42 people had been arrested.

There were also clashes in Grenoble and Marseille.

Youths torched cars, looted shops and stoned police at the end of a rally against the youth job law in the centre of Paris, witnesses said. Fire-fighters doused the front door of a six-storey apartment building set on fire in rue Fabert close to the Invalides area in central Paris, a Reuters correspondent said.

Police fired tear gas in an effort to contain the violence that erupted after thousands of students and workers marched through Paris, calling on Mr de Villepin to withdraw his CPE First Job Contract, which the young people say will create a generation of “throw-away workers.”

Dozens of youths smashed shop windows with chairs, overturned a car, torched another vehicle and hurled stones at police.

“Saturday’s march was good because everybody was together,” said a 22-year-old worker on the march. “This time, there are lots of young criminals on the march who are there to steal and smash. This discredits the movement.”

Protests against the CPE have spread across France in the past few weeks, largely remaining peaceful, but violence has erupted in the centre of Paris after previous rallies, with youths clashing with riot police.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met union officials on Tuesday after one of their members sank into a coma after being hurt in violence after Saturday’s Paris demonstration. Public prosecutors said there was no evidence police were to blame.

The new law allows employers to fire people under 26 without giving a reason during a two-year trial period. Mr de Villepin hoped the contract would help to cut youth unemployment.