French prison guards launched a nationwide strike on Monday in a showdown with President Emmanuel Macron’s government over staffing levels and violence which they say is spiralling out of control in overcrowded jails.
The strike, which kicked off with pre-dawn pickets, marked an escalation in protests after unions this weekend rejected a government proposal to recruit 100 extra prison warders this year and a further 1,000 before the end of Macron’s mandate in 2022.
Guards burned tyres and pallets outside several of the 188 jails in France ahead of talks hastily convened by Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet.
By midday, police had been sent into four jails to replace absent guards, a prison services spokesman told Reuters. Unions said the authorities would have to deploy additional officers as other guards came off shift.
“We will not be used as cannon fodder. We won’t give an inch,” Yoan Karar, an official for the Force Ouvriere union told the media. His union wants higher wages and rapid hiring of 2,400 staff.
Macron is under pressure to address the unrest among prison staff after several recent attacks on guards by inmates.
