Paris – A nationwide strike canceled flights, curtailed trains and buses, and disrupted other public services throughout France on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of students and workers staged the largest demonstrations in three weeks of protests against a pending labor law that would remove job protections for young people.
Union organizers estimated a national turnout of 2.7 million, 700,000 in Paris. Police figures were much lower.
Late in the day, as the protests were winding down, scattered skirmishes erupted in the capital, leading police to use tear gas against youths hurling bottles and Molotov cocktails. Groups of masked hoodlums darted through the crowds, snatching cellphones and purses.
Authorities had dispatched 400,000 officers across Paris in preparation for the protests.
An estimated one-third of the flights at Paris area airports were canceled and virtually all other flights were delayed because of striking air traffic controllers, airport authorities said.
Half of the suburban commuter trains in Paris were not running and one-third of the national train network was shut down by strikers, rail officials said. Commuter train, bus and streetcar services were limited in most French cities, according to early reports.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s new labor law, due to take effect next month, would allow employers to fire workers younger than 26 during a two-year trial period, undercutting longtime job protections that are part of the country’s social safety net and have wide public support.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a rival of de Villepin, proposed Tuesday that the government put the measure on hold to permit talks with the unions.
Student and worker unions called protest marches throughout the day in at least 100 French cities, with unions busing thousands of people into Paris for the largest demonstration.
