New Protests Slow France To A Crawl

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through cities around France on Tuesday, hoping to make their biggest show of strength yet to demand the repeal of a job law that has divided the country.

A nationwide strike snarled air, train and rail traffic and shut down the Eiffel Tower for the second time in a week. Students barricaded schools in protest against the job measure, which would make it easier to fire young workers.

In a sign that the impasse between the government and protesters might be easing, leaders of five major trade unions agreed to talks Wednesday. But they said they would hold firm on their demand that the jobs law be withdrawn.

Embattled Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who championed the law, told lawmakers in parliament: "The priority is to come out of the current crisis."

Americans may consider job security a luxury, but CBS News correspondent Elaine Cobbe reports the French are used to it — and young people don't understand why older workers should be given it, but not them.

President Jacques Chirac signed the bill Sunday despite two months of growing demonstrations, saying France needs the law to keep up with the world economy. He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn.

"What Chirac has done is not enough," said 18-year-old Rebecca Konforti, among a group of students who jammed tables against the door of their high school in southern Paris. "They're not really concessions; he just did it to calm the students."

The Paris march was among the biggest, with students chanting, linking hands and spilling out of the Place de la Republique. Police said at least 55,000 people turned out, but organizers put the figure at 700,000.

"It's very much an atmosphere of happiness. It's almost like a big family outing. There are people of all ages here, and they are all determined that the government must withdraw the controversial job contract," reports Cobbe (audio). "It's a sunny day, and the atmosphere here is so different last week, when this area was the scene of violent clashes between gangs of youth who came here deliberately to provoke the police."

The city deployed 4,000 police to avert violence that marred several previous protests over the law. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met with police during the march and urged them to act swiftly to stem unrest and make a "maximum number of arrests."

Police said at least 100,000 people had already hit French streets by midday. Organizers put the figure in the hundreds of thousands and hoped nationwide turnout would pass the 1 million who marched last week.

Buoyant students paraded through Marseille, France's second-largest city, under a sunny southern sky and there were major marches from Nantes in the west to Saint-Etienne in the southeast. Protests even reached the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where 2,000 people marched.

About 60 students lobbed eggs and other objects at police in the northern city of Lille.

At Paris' Saint-Lazare station, riot officers pulled over train travelers disembarking from the suburbs, searched their bags and checked identities.

Tourists, meanwhile, stood bewildered before closed gates at the Eiffel Tower, shuttered by strikers. Parisian commuters packed themselves onto limited subway trains. Overflowing garbage bins in some Paris neighborhoods stood uncollected by striking sanitation workers. Irish budget airline Ryanair canceled all its flights in and out of France.

The strike appeared weaker than last week's action, but the protesters at the Paris march remained energized and determined.

"We demand the withdrawal of the contract, and we will protest until we get it. We think that will happen," said Aurelien Bossard, a 21-year-old computer science student.

In the weeks of protest, students have blockaded entrances to many schools.

Education Minister Gilles de Robien told parliament that the number of affected high schools and colleges was declining.

Villepin proposed the disputed "first job contract" as a bid to boost the economy and stem chronic youth unemployment. He maintains it would encourage hiring by allowing employers to fire workers under 26 during their first two years on a job without giving a reason.

Critics say it threatens France's hallmark labor protections, and the crisis has severely damaged Villepin's political reputation.

His chief rival, Sarkozy, has emerged strengthened, and is taking a leading role in trying to bring unions to the negotiating table.