Massive protests mark one-day strike in France

The one-day strike called by French unions for 10 March brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of France last month.

Figures from the police state that 570,000 took part, while the unions estimated that just over one million participated. Substantial parts of the French economy were at a standstill.

The protest, which involved workers from both the public and private sectors, was twice as large as the last demonstration in February and was a clear sign of discontent on a number of fronts. One is the government's plan to undermine the 35-hour working week, another is the low level of pay increases, particularly in the public sector, while workers from manufacturing are concerned about plant closures.

Following the success of the day of protest the unions are calling on both the government and employers to change direction. The government has already promised that it will bring unions and employers together to restart industry-level negotiations.

* A new study carried out for the CFDT French union confederation has pointed to the difficulty that women have in making progress in the union movement. The study shows that, although 44% of the membership is female, women make up only 12% of local union secretaries.