Catherwood LibraryILR School

French labor unions and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe are currently at odds about serious labor law reform to be implemented in a little over a week which aims to loosen up France’s strict hiring and firing laws, change unemployment benefits, and modify pension structures. Trade unionists are enraged by the Prime Minister’s seeming nonchalance about the severe backlash he and his government are receiving in their plans to carry out these reforms which were originally proposed by President Emmanuel Macron. Demonstrations have erupted not only in France’s capital but throughout the country with 200,000 union members leading the first mass protest on Tuesday. Truck drivers belonging to France’s second and third largest unions made the critical decision to strike on the 25th, knowing that they possess serious influence over the country’s economy and hoping to continue the strike for as long as necessary to prevent these unpopular reforms.