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French labor law protests look set to continue next week

French students snubbed an invitation to talks yesterday with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, bringing the prospect of further social unrest and a nationwide strike next week a step closer.

On Friday, union leaders failed in talks to force Villepin to withdraw a divisive new jobs law and said they would go ahead with plans for a nationwide strike next week.

"We are facing a total refusal," said Francois Chereque, secretary general of the CFDT union, after a meeting with Villepin.

In a further blow to the prospects of a resolution, the leading high school and university student unions decided not to accept an invitation from the prime minister for talks yesterday, said Karl Stoeckel of UNL, the National High School Union. Instead, they planned a news conference in front of the prime minister's office.

Two smaller, less representative student unions have agreed to meet with Villepin.

The lack of any breakthrough left France facing the prospect of widespread transport disruptions during Tuesday's strike and the possibility of a protracted face-off over the law, which makes it easier for companies to hire -- and fire -- young workers. Civil aviation authorities said on Friday that they expect disturbances and canceled flights.

Villepin described Friday's meeting as "a first step" and said he hoped for more talks next week. But it remained unclear how he would extricate himself from the crisis and calm the nationwide swell of student protests that has led to blockades at dozens of universities and violent clashes with police.

Employers' organizations, who also met with the prime minister, voiced support for the jobs contract but serious concern for France and its image.

"We believe [the violence] endangers our country's economy, endangers the image and reputation of our country and also endangers the solidity of the social fabric," the head of the powerful employers' group MEDEF, Laurence Parisot, said after the talks.

The impasse over the jobs measure has exposed France's deep divisions about the direction of reform, between those who argue that such new approaches are needed to free up the economy and others who insist that change must not come at the expense of the country's cherished social protection.

Youths have been at the forefront of opposition to the law, backed by France's powerful labor unions and parties on the left who sense an opportunity to wound French President Jacques Chirac's governing conservatives ahead of next year's presidential and legislative elections.

Villepin's meeting on Friday with five leading unions -- their first since he introduced the "first job contract" in January -- got off to a combative start, with labor leaders riled by Chirac's declaration earlier in the day that the jobs law must be applied.

The only apparent concession from Villepin was the invitation for student leaders to meet with him Saturday.

Although he said that "everyone is aware of the importance of the current crisis,'' the gap between him and labor leaders still appeared unbridgeable.

"We were here today to tell him: `If you want the situation to calm down, if you want real negotiations to open, you must understand that you must withdraw''' the job contract, said Jean-Claude Mailly of the Workers Force union.

"He talked to us about the possibilities of making changes, improvements, and we told him that that was not what we are asking for," he said.

But the government and unions also run the risk that violence at demonstrations against the law could spin out of control, increasing pressure on both sides to seek a solution or at least not appear intransigent.

On Thursday, rioters mixed in with student demonstrators and turned the park in front of Napoleon's tomb into a battlefield. Youths with baseball bats attacked students and others hurled concrete chunks at riot police, who responded with baton charges and tear gas.
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