‘Public sector unions representing over 5 million French workers are going on a nationwide strike on Tuesday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s labor reforms. Schools, hospitals and transport will be affected, with 30 percent of flights across the country canceled.
It’s the first time in a decade that all the major unions, representing almost 20 percent of French workers, have united behind a protest call, Le Figaro reported.
“This is very simple. We are rebelling against the laws that Macron has prepared,” Didier Del Rey, spokesperson for CGT Paris Commerce, told RT. “These laws go against workers, our rights we fought for and won by workers in the 1950s. Since then the government’s done all it can to destroy what social protections there are in the labor code.
Del Rey said that the government favors businesses and “is against workers, from working conditions to salaries.”
“You should know that in the commercial sector, 70 percent of employees earn the minimum wage, which is very tough. This is what we are unhappy about,” he said. He noted that Macron had called workers “slackers” and labelled it a provocation.’
Read more: Millions of French workers go on strike against Macron labor reforms
