French unions hold last-ditch protest against labor bill

“We have made choices, clear choices”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in the National Assembly.

Valls said he was acting in the “general interest” of the French people.

People march during a demonstration in Paris, Tuesday, July 5, 2016.

The union heads have said that Tuesday’s protest will be the last of the summer, but have vowed to return to the streets in September.

Right-wingers walked out of the National Assembly and rebels in his own party watched, stone-faced, as Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced he would use constitutional powers to bypass the lower house of parliament during a second review of the reform.

Christian Paul, leading a dissident Socialists, warned Prime Minister Valls that he risked further alienating left-wing voters if he overrode parliamentary opponents and forced the labour reform bill onto the statute books by decree ahead of legislative and presidential elections in mid-2017.

The bill prompted divisions in the governing Socialist party.

France’s Constitution allows governments to bypass parliament under a clause known as 49.3, a strategy that opinion polls suggest is opposed by public opinion.

President Francois Hollande said last week that his Socialist government would “go all the way” to enact the reforms, which are seen by critics as too pro-business and a threat to cherished workers’ rights.

Supporters say to trim a jobless rate in France of 10 percent and give companies more flexibility to set tailor-made salary arrangements and working conditions when hiring staff.

 “This is a counterproductive law socially and economically”, Marie-Jose Kotlicki, a member of the hardline CGT union, told Reuters. Controversy about the law has dominated local headlines for months, obscuring the strengthening economy and sending Hollande’s approval rating to a record low.

But pressure from the street, as well as parliament’s back benches, caused the government to water down the proposals, which only angered bosses while failing to satisfy the unions.