Paris, July 1 (RHC)-- Trade unions have strongly rejected the French government’s new amendments to controversial labor reforms, which have sparked months of nationwide violent protests across the European country.  

In comments published by Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday, Philippe Martinez, leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union, which has been organizing demonstrations across France, said the amendments fell short of the union’s demands.

In a joint statement, the CGT and six other unions also accused the beleaguered government of France's embattled President Francois Hollande of neglecting their demands, saying: “The government remains deaf to our proposals."

This comes a day after the French government offered unions more of a say in determining workers' terms at industry level than currently set out in the bill, while still shifting the emphasis towards companies.  French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has already signaled he is not open to further modifying a text that has already been watered down.

The hotly debated bill was already forced through the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, by decree through a constitutional clause known as 49:3.  It was approved by the Senate on Tuesday and thousands of protesters took to the streets of France on the same day to protest the reforms.