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3 April, 2006
French ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT has called an eight-hour strike for tomorrow, 4 April, at all Total worksites across France in protest to the government’s contrat premiére embauche (CPE), the “first job contract” labour reform being imposed on young workers.
The union is asking all Total workers to join tomorrow’s inter-sectoral day of action, and has asked all trade union delegates to organise general staff assemblies in preparation.
French labour federations are united in efforts to push the government and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin off CPE, which passed Parliament by decree without dialogue with social partners. The reform would allow employers to sack workers under age 26 in their first two years of employment without needing justification.
French President Chirac announced last week the scaling back of the two-year period to one year. FCE-CFDT, who together with other unions rejected the Chirac compromise, has called the strike tomorrow at Total without saying exactly when the eight-hour work stoppage would begin.