Morning Star.png French Refineries under Blockade as More Strikes Start Today The Morning Star, London, 31 May 2016 Oil tankers were backed up outside Marseille port yesterday as the French government braced itself for a new round of strikes across the transport sector today. Sea ports, railways, the Paris Metro and possibly airports will be hit by the walkouts over a variety of industry-specific disputes in the run-up to the Euro 2016 football championship, which kicks off on June 10.The strikes take place against the backdrop of mass protests against the government's plan to raise weekly working-time limits from 35 hours to 46 hours, dubbed the El Khomri law. With some 2.5 million supporters expected to attend matches across the country, further disruption is expected. Workers at national rail firm SNCF begin their strike today while the Paris transit authority RATP staff will walk out on Thursday. Air traffic controllers are expected to join on Friday. Prime Minister Manuel Valls had held talks with CGT union general secretary Philippe Martinez in recent days, raising hopes of a deal. But on Sunday Mr Valls returned to his stubborn rhetoric as strikers blockaded all eight of France's oil refineries and the oil depot at Port-de-Bouc near Marseille, further worsening shortages at the petrol pumps. "That's enough. It's unbearable to see this sort of thing," he told French radio. "The CGT will come up against an extremely firm response from the government. We'll carry on clearing sites blocked by this organisation." On Sunday the Paris prosecutor's office said preliminary charges of attempted murder had been laid against five protesters, including a US citizen, who torched a police car on May 18 with two officers still in it. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b2e6-France-Refineries-under-blockade- as-more-strikes-start-today#.V00m4_l9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b2e6-France-Refineries-under-blockade-a s-more-strikes-start-today#.V00m4_l9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
