Rail staff kick off strike day

PARIS - Trade unions began a one-day national strike last night to try to force Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to abandon a new job law that makes it easier to fire young workers.

Commuters faced delays on public transport and airports were expected to be hit by stoppages overnight. Some postal workers, teachers and media employees were among those planning to strike and hundreds of thousands were expected to attend protest rallies.

The standoff over the CPE First Job Contract is a major challenge for Villepin, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election.

He hopes the measure will reduce youth unemployment from 23 per cent, but union leaders say it will create a generation of "throwaway workers" because it makes it easier to sack youths in their trial two-year period.

Transport workers were the first to strike, stopping work on some railway and subway lines. Many trains were still running, including on the Eurostar line to Brussels and London, but some commuters were frustrated.

"It's really annoying, all these delays," said one young worker at Paris' St Lazare station. "I'm going to be half an hour late for work."

But opinion polls show almost two-thirds of French people oppose the CPE and unions said 135 rallies were planned across France. Police said they would be out on the streets in high numbers because of fears of a repeat of violence from last week.

Fears of a broader revolt have been fuelled by incidents in Paris last week including looting, clashes with riot police and the mugging of student demonstrators by hardcore elements.

Villepin ignored unions and forced the youth job contract through Parliament despite reservations from his ministers and some members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement.

Villepin has invited unions and student bodies to meet him for talks tomorrow but it is not clear whether they will accept the invitation.

- REUTERS