“The French government, and all politicians in the country, should heed the strong message from today’s mobilisation, and from the many other organisations which have expressed their concerns, over the impacts of the proposals from the moment they were first put forward by the government. The idea that weakening labour laws and fundamental protections for workers will somehow create more jobs has been tried before and it simply hasn’t worked,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

Rallies, strike action and other forms of protest took place across the country, with activities in more than 200 different places reported.