The 11th day of strikes took place in Paris and other cities without any particular incidents. In Nice, apart from disruptions in the public transport network, no other inconvenience was reported, and the procession marched peacefully.
The protest movement against the Labor Law seems to be losing momentum: nationally, the police estimate the number of demonstrators at 64,000, whereas the unions claim 200,000!!!
As always in these cases, mathematics, although an exact science, is just an opinion!
Despite this loss of momentum, the “fight commander” Philippe Martinez (CGT) and his partner Jean-Claude Mailly (FO) still find joy in it and have already announced another march for the upcoming July 5th, the day when the National Assembly will examine this highly contested law in a second reading.
Unintimidated by the union opposition, the Senate, with its right-wing majority, adopted the text in the afternoon in a more liberal version: the 35-hour workweek cap was removed, the generalization of the youth guarantee was eliminated, the personal activity account was partially emptied, and the cap on industrial tribunal compensation (at 15 months’ salary) was reinstated.
However, this version is expected to be unraveled by lawmakers in a new reading starting next Tuesday, during which the government does not rule out resorting to Article 49-3 to have its version adopted without a vote.
