French Unions Issue Ultimatum

[struggle4progress]

More Protests Threatened Unless Job Law Is Voided by April 15

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 6, 2006; Page A26

PARIS, April 5 -- French labor unions, emboldened by this week's massive turnout of demonstrators on the streets of several cities, issued an ultimatum Wednesday for the government to withdraw its contentious labor reform law by April 15, holding out the threat of more disruptive nationwide protests and strikes. <snip>


As many as three million people marched in the streets of cities across France in what has grown from a protest against a single labor law to an outpouring of discontent with a government that a new generation feels does not represent its interests. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2006/03/24/GA2006032401121_index_frames.htm?startat=1



Posters From The 1968 Paris Uprising

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. For all the nostalgia about France 1968, what were they trying to achieve?

The present marches and strikes have a definite objective - preventing this new law. From what I read about 1968, there weren't real objectives that people had in common - it was just a general "we're pissed off and we're not going to take it any more" feeling. And similarly, it didn't achieve anything concrete either. So why is it looked back on with such fondness by some people?

[400Years]

2. because they rocked the government back on their heels for a short time

Yes it was short lived but spectacular in its nature.

[David__77]

4. It could have turned out differently.

DeGualle could have been toppled. A progressive government could have seized power. It was a politically conscious rebellion. If the unions led by the old Communist Party hadn't conciliated with the forces of "law and order," the situation would have become untenable for the state.

[BiggJawn]

3. We should take a lesson from the French. But we won't...

Naw, "CSI" is coming on! Wait! It's Thursday, "Survivor" is coming on!

[enigma000]

5. You mean riot to keep guaranteed lifetime employment?

A job you can't lose regardless of changes in the business climate, the economy or job performance. Is that good economic sense?

[BiggJawn]

6. Sounds real good to me.

Of course, I'm one of those smelly rabble who's 1 paycheck away from sleeping on a steam grate anyway, not Capital.

I take it you've never been victimized by the old "You need to RE-TRAIN" bait-and-switch?

[enigma000]

9. No, but I've gotten the "we think you should move on" speech

a couple of times. And I've found work shortly thereafter. Something that might be far more difficult in a country with 10% unemployment. I might add, from a management perspective, the inability to lay off staff would certainly discourage me from hiring.

[BiggJawn]

10. well, I can see we have no common ground.

I might add, from "a Labor perspective" that I agree with the Wobblies when they say there is no common ground between the Boss-Class and the Worker-Class.

Your mission, as Management, is to get people like me to work as hard as we will for as little money as you have to pay us, with NO guarantee from day-to-day that you'll continue to keep us around.

Tell me just how stupid you Capitalists think we are, to hope that we'll work for crap, and bet our futures on still having our miserable little jobs while we try to buy homes and "durable goods"?

I live in an "Employment at Will" state, which translated to cold, hard English really means "Fire on a WHIM".

Yeah, "Plenty of JOBS out there!"...
At $5 an hour, unless you're competing with a lot of undocumented people, then the going rate's more like $3.

BTW, what I mean by the "retraining bait-and-switch" is how they tell you that you need to go back to school and learn a "new" trade that will also be off-shored and gone shortly after you get out of school $10,000 in debt again. Either that, or you can always become a OTR truckdriver. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not for me.

[enigma000]

13. I think we may have some common ground.

Can’t say I’ve been accused of being boss-class much. (I work for a small privately owned company – we are all worker-class here) And, alas, my salary doesn’t quite qualify as Capitalist class either. Still, I should be thankful I don’t have to contend with the “great” American economy.

I just feel it is economically unfair and unjust for a state to take actions that discourage the hiring of employees, even if these actions benefit those already employed. And in France, this is having the doubly unfortunate effect of keeping the recent immigrant population unemployed. Let's just say, if I owned a car, I wouldn't park it in France.

[BiggJawn]

14. Perhaps France is at one end of the dial...

But we're not far from the other end. We have a temp company over here that advertises their accountants with an ad campaign like "Oh, don't worry, you lazy slackers, go ahead and TAKE your vacation. I'll just get 'BOB' from AccounTemps to fill in!"... "(GASP!) Oh, NO, Jay-Bee, NOT 'BOB'!!! I don't need any time off, see? I cancelled EVERYTHING for the next 6 months, including my Prostate surgery!"

I gather from your comments about our "Great Murkan Economy" that you aren't here. Yes, you should be thankful, since from the Reagan Era, the state of employer-labor affairs has been Employers bitching about their "lazy help" and Labor complaining about being taken advantage of, or getting 2-weeks notice that our jobs are going to China.

Pretty bad when dirt-poor people who collect Assistance with their minimum-wage pay complain about how the Unions have "ruined" this country...

[enigma000]

15. Being an accountant, that hits close to home for me

They can outsource accounting now - lots of North American tax returns are done in India now. And if accounting is no longer a site specific type job, what is?

I'm in Canada and I find the economy seems to be functioning well. It certainly beats the 1990s: restructuring from Free Trade with the US, worst recession since the Great Depression, hitting the "debt wall" both federally and provincially. Not to mention cutbacks at all levels of government (feds cut the deficit by cutting transfer payments to the provinces, provinces cut the deficit back cutting payments to municipalities, municipalities cut services). All this really sucked, but, we are running a surplus federally, taxes have been slowly reduced, social services are being refunded, and the unemployment rate is the lowest in 30 years.

I see the US having problems, but that could be solved by electing more responsible and competent policy leaders, which I think will happen. But can France continue to ignore the fact the rest of the world will work for a fraction of what a French employee will demand? All the power to them if true, but can they do it?

[doc03]

7. Workers in this country could take a lesson from

the French and grow a backbone. People in this country just roll over and play dead, the corporations have been screwing over workers for the last 30 years. If anything Union membership should be up not 12% or 13% of the workforce and shrinking. Eventually the pendulum will swing back the other way and I hope it is not to late. I really think this country is beyond the point of no return.

on edit: When Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers and the whole labor movement was silent, that sent a message to the Republicans that the Union leadership had grown too fat and spineless to fight back.

[killbotfactory]

12. We don't like scary protestors in this country

Something about having power taken out of the hands of the political elites and given to "the people" turns us off.

And by "we" and "us" I mean the corporate media.

[Sgent]

8. Keep in mind

that the French have 25% unemployment in people below age 30. There are costs to their types of laws...

[Imajika]

11. The French economy basically stinks...

..and it isn't getting any better.

Unemployment is at near 10% and for young people the unemployment rate hovers around 25%. For immigrant youth, unemployment is far worse - approaching 50% in some areas. The social welfare system in France is flat out unsustainable unless the economy significantly grows.

I can see where this law allowing businesses to fire anyone in the first 1-2 years for virtually any reason is unappealing. It would give business license to hire, use the employee, fire them before the deadline, repeat process. I can also certainly understand why many don't want any loosening of the strict labor laws, but I have not seen one single workable idea from the protesters about what can actually be done to promote economic growth and encourage business to hire people. The French economy is stagnating, just about everyone knows it, yet other than march in the streets these protesters offer no solution to the problem that I've seen.

Make it nearly impossible to fire someone, and the result will be businesses that are reluctant to hire. Especially reluctant to hire unknown quantities like immigrants.

Virtually every business I deal with looks to Eastern Europe and Asia for a presence and future hiring. Nearly all of these companies avoid France and much of the rest of Western Europe when it comes to recruiting workers or establishing any significant presence. Call it unfair and business capitalizing on cheap labor, but that is the way it is. How does France stay afloat if it doesn't make some kind of change and encourage economic growth and hiring?