In France, sizable protests agianst a new labour law that threatens to make it easier to lay off workers en evade the 35-hour day. A few mainstream news articles I found through Labourstart (I saw news articees on a Dutch news site as well)
Seems quite big. And in a Dutch news site, the labour law that was defeated through the big protests of 2006 was mentioned by way of historical context.
Hadn't heard anything about this, according to Le Monde it's a student strike. 70-150 thousand demonstrating in Paris. It might explain the noise at school on Tuesday. (Last week's day of action got 220000 out)
115 establishments blockaded since yesterday. Scuffles with Police in Paris, Nantes, Rouen and MArseille.
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/portfolio/2016/03/17/loi-travail-les-defiles-ponctues-par-des-incidents_4885226_823448.html
It will make it easier to fire people. In terms of the 35 hour week it will cut obligatory bonuses for overtime and make it easier to force overtime.
In other news there has been a 1.2% pay increase for civil servants whose pay has been frozen since 2010, widely seen as a cynical move by Holande ahead of the election. Personally I don't understand it, it isn't enough to bribe anyone and he's almost certainly going to lose if he stands.