March 28th

On this day - March 28th 2006 - Student Protest in France

The youth protest in France started earlier in February 2006 and was against the bill to deregulate labour laws regarding first time hires and workers under the age of 26. The proposed changes would make it easier for employers to fire employees during first two years of their hire. The main part was that employers would not need to site a reason for their decision to fire the employee for the first two years. This proposed change was so unpopular that on February 7th between 200 000 and 400 000 people took part in 187 protests in France. The protest gained traction and over a million took part in protests on the 7th and 9th of March, 38 universities were even on strike. The protest escalated trough March and on the 28th 1.055 million (according to the police, 2.71 million according to the union) people marched against the proposed change in law. On April 11th the legislation was scraped and by April 18th all the universities were reopened. 

Protest at Paris Jessieu Campus, Origin