Anti-Sarkozy strike fizzles in France

I do try to get away from the over-worn topic of France and its working habits, but another nationwide strike has forced it back onto the menu today. I'll make it brief. The strike du jour is part of a show of force to make President Sarkozy abandon pension reform. The plan, passed four years before Sarko took office, will make people work one year longer to qualify for a full retirement pension.

The unions have called out the usual mass marches to protest against this latest assault by "la droite" against the hard-earned rights of people to retire as early as possible with decent pensions.

The official French retirement age is 60 but the average for stopping work and collecting a pension is 58.  Private sector workers are supposed today to down tools and join the protests of their public sector comrades who are paralysing transport and closing government offices. That's the theory, but it's not happening.

Yes, France Inter radio, the public network, played music instead of news this morning. And yes, there are noisy protest marches. But the so-called mobilisation is half-hearted. The unions claim that 750,000 people have marched nationally. The police put the total at about a third of that. There is moderate disruption to rail transport. Paris traffic jams are no bigger than usual. The Metro is working normally, as are the airports. France is going through the old motions, but few imagine that Sarkozy will retreat and most people accept that they cannot escape the consequences of the demographic change that has affected every other western nation.

Libération, the leftwing daily, reports that public sympathy is 60 percent behind the goal of today's strike. This is to block the extension from 40 to 41 years of the working period needed to qualify for a full retirement pension. But the newspaper's poll also found that a majority was resigned to change. Seventy-seven percent believe that the solution is to make at least some of the population work more years. People in pénible -- tough --  jobs should be exempted, 41 percent believe.

Sarkozy is still deeply unpopular and he has been facing insubordination in his own parliamentary camp, but he is enjoying a second wind. People around him report that he is in fighting mood and that he already senses that he has won his case. He is determined to stick to the programme of reforms that he believes will win him a place in history. He has been comparing himself lately to Margaret Thatcher at the height of her showdown with the British unions in the early 1980s, they say.

As usual, Sarko is overdoing it. He has already backed away from some of his plans and only yesterday  he caved in to fishermen after they blocked ports and staged a violent demonstration in central Paris. His government bought off the boat owners with the promise of 110 million euros to subsidise their fuel costs. This is on top of a 310 million euro subsidy that it promised last November. The fishermen's victory has encouraged truck owners to start planning a similar grab for subsidies.

Resistance to Sarko and his government is far from over, but there is a sense that he has out-manoeuvered the big trade unions and is winning the ideological fight.

Sarko has just received help from an opponent. Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist mayor of Paris and a would-be president of France, has caused a stir by coming out as a "libéral" -- French for someone who supports the free market. The left should stop treating libéral as a dirty word, Delanoe writes in a book-length personal manifesto called De l'Audace.   Delanoe's rivals on the left are mocking him for missing the boat, supporting le libéralisme just when the financial crisis and turbulence from globalisation are discrediting the doctrine. They have a point. France has been well behind the ideological curve since 1981. That was the year that François Mitterrand won the presidency with a hard left programme. He nationalised the banks and big industrial groups just as private enterprise was being reborn everywhere else. Still, I promised to keep this short.

      

Comments

[dot king]

France Inter only started the strike at 7am - but it is true that in a morning hurry, I lose all my temporal répères without Nicolas Demoran et Cie.
Le Fou du Roi was busines as usual - Didier Porte said he wasn't striking because on strike days his audience doubled!

[qwerty]

Part of the reason the strike is not immobilising the whole of France is the implementation of new regulations about giving 48hours forehand warning of who/how many are going to strike, so SNCF et al could get organised.
Hallelujah! Maybe the reforms are finally clicking in!
Check: 1) increased use of the heures supplémentaires défiscalisées, 2) freak figures for "la croissance" (they're really freakish, aren't they? how did they achieve that?) and now the strikes will have less impact.

Of course Charles is right - the fishermen. Why aren't the fishermen in other countries (the problem is worldwide) protesting and burning trucks too? Why can France apply to EU to approve special subsidies for them, if no-one else is?

[rocket]

"He has been comparing himself lately to Margaret Thatcher at the height of her showdown with the British unions in the early 1980s, they say."

Oh Pleeeaase!

Next he'll be comparing himself to Eli Manning in Superbowl XLII.

Watch out when Sarko becomes too confident. Out comes the Gold Rolex again.

What's with Delanoe? One finger less in the pic and he would be flicking the bird. Plus ""De l'audace" sound disturbing like

De l'old ass.

He also seems to be beckoning. Butt who could he be beckoning?

Charles

"...has caused a stir by coming out as a "libéral" -- French for someone who supports the free market."

Right. A liberal in France is a leftist in the US and UK even with liberal in French meaning "à droite".

Plus Charles I'm not sure that he said FREE market. I think he said FLEE Market. I heard he is studying Japanese.

[Mauvezin]

C'est le chant du cygne.
Les socialos-gauchos-bobos i tutti quanti ont compris que l'époque a changée et qu'il faut travailler ; il n'est qu'à voir la nostalgie poignante qui étreint les soixante-huitards au souvenir des "beaux jours" eternellement envolés !
Sarkozy a l'energie et le courage necessaire pour implementer les reformes necessaires et il a 4 ans pour le faire.
Tout cela se fera sans éffusion de sang.
La crise mondiale actuelle va l'y aider.

[colin grayson]

quite right ...people in tough jobs should have to work less years ....if you know any you will notice they certainly age faster ; seems only fair

so how about 50 years minimum for functionaires ?

[GAG]

Same strikers, at the same time, every year. Same comments on the media, same comments by politicians, same comments by interviewed strikers. France & the French, you’re becoming boring.
GAG

[Christine]

Posted by: qwerty | 22 May 2008 12:57:48

Actually, the use of overhours has decreased, not increased (Le Figaro reported it wrong: only the number of enterprises using the overhours have increased).

Posted by: colin grayson | 22 May 2008 14:18:49
What makes you think that fonctionnaires have less tough jobs than workers in the private?

[azloon]

[so how about 50 years minimum for functionaires ?] Colin Grayson

from the sound of it, french functionaires make american civil servants seem positively motivated. well. let's don't go that far.

there was a joke to the effect that the only way to know if a government employee was alive or not was to place a small mirror under his/her nostrils.

[richard jones]

Perhaps he has more popular support than appeared to be the case a few days ago and in his latest 'popularity figures'.
He needs to tag another small, surprise reform onto this one and see what happens. If he can build a certain momentum he may get most or the framework of most major reforms underway before end 2008.

[john o'doe]

Thatcher won a lot of kudos for bashing Brussels. Today it's Brussels doing the bashing and it's Sarko who's at the receiving end. The EU will allowing only part of the funding requested for the fishermen and has told him he can expect no EU funding for his Club Med empire and that he can't be its first president for 2 years.
Back in France he's spreading the myth about some unemployed person who supposedly turned down 63 job offers. The story was told to him by a mentally unstable job centre employment counselor but he believed it without the slightest question.
Meanwhile the president of France has found time to look into the problems on the RER 'A' line. So that's settled then.

[Judith]

I am currently visiting my family in Provence, not far from Marseille, and there seems to be some level of strike activity here. My grandson's creche is closed for the day. When we asked one of the staff why they were going on stike, they told us it was about retirement.

Most of the women working at the creche are in their twenties and thirties at the most. It seems to be very long term planning to be worrying about retirement at that age.

In spite of the local activism, family and friends seem to be conscious for the need for change and are disappointed in Nicolas Sarkozy because they think that he hasn't delivered on his promises for reform, rather than opposing overall the actions his government is taking.

[Daniel Strohl]

Christine,

"What makes you think that fonctionnaires have less tough jobs workers in the private?"

Christine, allow me a somewhat specific comparison. The SNCF engine drivers had up to recently their "retraite" at 50, at the same age as the merchant navy sailors (and also fishermen, as far as I know).

If one trusts the SNCF unions, the drivers are almost "les damnés de la terre" (this was probably more true 60 years ago, when the SNCF still used steam engines). However, they spent plenty of time at home or at least close to their home, even if they work occasionally at night or during week-ends or Christmas or New Year.

The sailors spend may be 4 consecutive months at sea, far away from their families. On board, there are no week-ends, no "ponts à la 1.er/8 mai", and calls are usually extremely short; therefore, even if they are exceptionally not on duty, they have barely the time to relax on shore leave ...

I never drove a SNCF engine, but I spent four months on a trawler (pêche hauturière, La Rochelle) and a few years on tankers, cargo ships and a passenger ship. This was between 1956 and 1965 with one interruption. Nevertheless, this experience entitles me to make some comparisons.

PS : I am not at all against "fonctionnaires"; they are needed and the "services publics" work generally quite well. This has of course a cost, but one can't have good or excellent quality at too low a cost. But what goes me on the nerves (and I am possibly not alone :)) is the recurrent striking, organized by competing unions in order to increase their market share. And la "cerise sur le gateau" is the very democratic "vote à main levée", mostly a speciality of our beloved CGT.

[Mauget]

The problem with strikes is there's always unemployed people glad to work at the strikers current level.

[Christine]

Daniel Strohl,
The sailor exemple is a nice one, but but can you say sailors are representative of private sector?
I am not defending the fonctionnaires (nor am I against them). The general opinion the fonctionnaires don't work and have a confortable job just strikes me, because the work conditions are not very different between the private and the public (the differences in salaries and "sécurité de l'emploi" are a totally different thing). In both sectors, there are people (many) sitting behind a desk, and there are people (some)working physically hard or in stressfull conditions. I don't see why I should agree with the general contempt (along with a handfull of stereotypes) the "fonctionnaires" are hold in just because it is has become the last trendy thing to say.

[Michel Jutharat]

I think Brits should care the mess they have at home, and let us froggies cope with our problems.

[Ros]

Michel Jutharat: Not necessarily, if they are Brits who live in France permanently AND pay Income Tax & other taxes!

[sebastien]

Daniel Strohl:
Interesting point about sailors. I would imagine that even our sailors who are fonctionnaires (marine nationale, etc) enjoy better conditions than many of their private sector counterparts (certainly than fishermen), as long as they steer clear of Trafalgar and Mers el Kebir... But I think we expect the public sector to set the standard.
Until about 10 years ago a significant proportion of my students (university) were attracted by careers in the public sector, including teaching. Now very few of them are. The reason they cite for this is the poor pay: they don't want to study for years for a job where starting pay is barely a fraction over the legal minimum wage, as it is for secondary school teachers today (up until the early 1980s starting pay was well over twice the legal minimum wage). My own net salary has gone down 25 percent in real terms since I've being doing this job, and will no doubt have gone down as much again by the time I retire. Still, I love my work (and my holidays...). Mais ne dites pas à ma mère que je suis fonctionnaire, elle croit que je suis pianiste dans un bordel.
So fonctionnaires shouldn't be out there striking against inevitable pension reform and public sector cuts. If anything they should be striking for pay reform: it would automatically increase their pension contributions anyway, and of course is the best way of attracting brighter elements back into the teaching profession and other public sector jobs.
But then again, it seems there's no money available for pay increases, short of shedding a lot of public sector jobs... And we couldn't have that, now could we?

[Claudia]

TOTAL AGREEMENT WITH CHRISTINE AND MICHEL!
(A TEACHER WHO CONSIDERS HER JOB EXHAUSTING AND LONGS FOR EARLY RETIREMENT.)

[Claudia]

As a frog teacher an a civil servant,I consider my job as highly exhausting and longs for early retirement.

I AGREE WITH CHRISTINE AND MICHEL.

[K]

I disagree with Charles saying that "Paris traffic jams are no bigger than usual". Rue de rivoli was a mess on my Velib way to work. You could definitely see that a strike was in progress, navigating between all the cars was really hard. Apart from that however, no real disruptions.

[V]

ROS:
"Michel Jutharat: Not necessarily, if they are Brits who live in France permanently AND pay Income Tax & other taxes!"

If they vote, yes. If they don't - nope.

[Edward Johns]

I heard a suggestion from a Frenchman this week that the proposed increase in years worked for full pension rights was inequitable because many people don't find a job until they are 30 years old! Surely this can't be true?

[azloon]

re: who has a tough job or not

a unfortunate event is 'regrettable' when it happens to someone else, a tragedy when i happens to you. same idea.

[FC]

V:
"If they vote, yes. If they don't - nope."

...which, let's face it, would rule out 99.9% of non French nationals no matter how long they've lived and contributed to the system (taxes etc) here.

[Daniel Strohl]

Sébastien,

In the merchant navy, we had no problem with Trafalgar or Mers el Kebir :)). However, we had to steer clear off Ras Guardafui, a dangerous and feared cape (in case of bad visibility) at the horn of Africa.

Even if I am not able to remember a case of piracy à la Ponant, le coin avait mauvaise réputation; dans les "Instructions Nautiques" de l'époque (début des années soixante), on pouvait encore lire la phrase "Se défier des naturels!", qui fleurait bon la marine à voile! Les Instructions Nautiques étaient une documentation contenant toutes sortes d'informations utiles aux navigateurs et qu'on ne pouvait pas faire figurer sur les cartes.

But I am getting totally off topic!

Regarding the teachers and their low salaries, the unions should make their mea culpa. Of course, this will not happen, since they are still mainly interested to have as many "cotisants" as possible; of course, as you have pointed out, this is antagonistic with correct salaries!

[V]

"which, let's face it, would rule out 99.9% of non French nationals no matter how long they've lived and contributed to the system"

That's what I meant. From what I know (I may be wrong), many of the Brits, Americans etc who settle in France don't actually ask for a French passport - which is a shame, because they're paying taxes like a local but they have no say about how the country is governed. Being a tax payer means absolutely nothing (you benefit from the top living standards anyway, that's more than enough for your money), and uncivil criticism can be met with the stern dismissal we witnessed.

"because many people don't find a job until they are 30 years old! Surely this can't be true?"

Sometimes it actually is, unfortunately: some are continuing their studies until they're in their 30s, parents providing, and they don't call short-term employment "job".
More generally, the job archetype in France is still, like 100 years ago, the Bank and the State.

[Ros]

V: "If they vote, yes. If they don't - nope." - sorry, I wasn't explicit enough - I meant Brits who have double nationality and DO vote.

[Monika]

The problems with pensions are not only due to demographic evolution but also from the fact that real unemployment (not that fake number made public) is high. Less people in work mean less people who pay into the pension funds.
High unemployment and the destruction of classic industrial work and the increase in work requiring a certain level of education combined with an unprecedent youth cult within Western societies will make it difficult to make the extension of working time effective.
In Germany working time has been extended from 65 to 67 years but about a third (if I remember the number well) of the people above 50 years are unemployed. I guess these people will have to stay 2 years longer unemployed and 'benefit' 2 years longer from public help.
So we have to ask why older people are more likely to become unemployed.
Most cited reasons are that knowledge is evolving to fast for many elderly people to keep up to. Another reason would be that salaries are increasing with age somehow so elderly people are more expensive than younger ones. Imho one should probably add that in Western societies the image of the dynamic flexible energetic young is prefered to the image of elderly people with experience.

Then we will have to bring more people into work.

[Ros]

V:" many of the Brits, Americans etc who settle in France don't actually ask for a French passport " - I don't see what you mean how can they ask for a French passport if they do not have French nationality?

[V]

ROS,
I was referring to those who do NOT have French nationality, and I was arguing they should demand it.

Brits only too often bring forth their "paying taxes for 30 years", not realizing that this is without importance: paying taxes is the minimum one can do to compensate for the high living standard one enjoys in France. This doesn't give anyone the right to badmouth the locals and the way they deal with things.

To M. Jutharat, I would have replied: they are Brits living in France and having French nationality.

[rocket]

http://tinyurl.com/58z6or

"In a boisterous mood, according to Le Figaro, the president predicted to one adviser that "one day they'll say I made as many reforms as Margaret Thatcher!"

His method of constant dialogue with the unions, however, is very different to that of the former British prime minister.

If anything, say many analysts, the pension plan does not go far enough. "In reality, the measures are insufficient; the French known it, the unions know it,'' wrote the financial daily Les Echos, likening the protests to "a gallant last stand". Unions, meanwhile, hoped that yesterday's mass demonstrations and a series of separate protests would "coagulate" into a wider movement and force an about-turn over pensions and other planned reforms. "

[Sam Young]

I work as a consultant to both the French public sector and the French private sector. It is clear that public sector workers have an easy time compared to private sector workers. Any claims to the contrary are totally unfounded. Personally, i love working with the French public sector because (apart from their nasty habit of paying 4 to 6 months after the rendering of the service), there is far less stress.

[dot king]

Edward Johns, yes it is true that many people in France don't start working until their late twenties. A new teacher at school came into her first post aged 30 last year. A friend's daughter started work at 27 after finishing her studies. And here I'm talking children of "bonne famille" who have progressed "normally" through their early lives - goodness knows what happens to the many who are held up by redoublements and then by unemployment.
I remember being shocked to find, when I was an "assistante anglaise" aged 18 in a private lycée, that there were girls I was teaching aged 21.
Most new teachers in the UK come into the profession aged 22 - 24 or so after doing "A" levels, a "year out", and university/ professional qualifications.
I don't know how they manage this whole mess really, if you get your first job (whatever it is) in your late twenties or early thirties and you have 41 years to work to have pension rights, then your retirement and the chance to rest and please yourself a bit must seem very distant and almost unattainable - no wonder the French want to protect their 40-year working stretch - epecially those in "métiers pénbibles" however one defines them.

[FC]

V:
"I was referring to those who do NOT have French nationality, and I was arguing they should demand it"

if only it were that simpele. But then, if it were that simple, what would all those fonctionnaires do with their days.

[dot king]

"French nationality, and I was arguing they should demand it" V

Sounds like you held a gun to someone's head, or perhaps threatened them with a good spanking :)

In English we say, "apply for" or "request". If you "demand" something in English you are asking for it in such a way as to ensure not getting it, ie rudely, forcefully or disrespectfully.

"Demander" has lots of levels in French, but in English, a demand is on the level of an order. FYI :)

[V]

Now that the grammar is clear and supremacists' bottom is all blisters, maybe Miss Marple will deign to enlighten us on the rights conferred by her own "30 years paying taxes".
When it cools down a bit, that is - we're understanding, WE! :)

[dot king]

Valentin, will you stop this Miss Marple nonsense once and for all. I have NEVER posted anything as Miss Marple and by repeating and repeating it, you won't make it so.

Sometimes your English, whilst being in general very good, if used in a social context would make you come across as disagreable, rude or without social graces, so I thought it might be helpful to you to know that "demander" can't be used as universally in English as it is in French.
But, hey, you carry on as normal, take no notice whatsoever, it changes nothing as to how you come across to people reading you.

[Rose]

60 years old is too young... Especially if that person did not start working early in his/her life...

[dot king]

"maybe Miss Marple will deign to enlighten us on the rights conferred by her own "30 years paying taxes".
Valentin

I've only just noticed this, I didn't submit the post about the "30 years' paying taxes" either.

Not Miss Marple, not made a comment about paying taxes for thirty years.

[V]

My bad, Miss Marple's memory seemed to be in a somewhat better shape ;)

"...BTW I'm not a "guest" here, I'm a European citizen and since my arrival (16 years ago) I have worked, paid taxes, frequented local shops...."

Posted by: dot king | 11 Jan 2008 10:56:02

[dot king]

V: the whole of your post, the one quoting me from Jan 11th, serves what purpose exactly?

I have now been here coming up to 17 years and I still work, pay taxes and use the local shops, and at the last count I was still European.

I haven't put anything on this thread about taxes, and in the post you cite, I was replying to Daniel on quite another subject - in fact it was the mix-up over my totally ridiculous real name (I remember it well).
And if I remember something else well, on this thread it's Ros who posted about tax-paying, and (I think) mentioned 30 years.
Perhaps I'm Ros as well, then, that's another identity I didn't know I had.

BTW everyone out there, NB that V is prepared to spend time delving deep into archives to try and catch you out.
I suspect he does it in working hours, on taxpayers' money. ;}

[V]

"I haven't put anything on this thread about taxes"

Yeah. You intervened in a discussion about the Brits' right to badmouth France because they pay taxes, and I asked, how about YOUR OWN taxpaying in France.
Your replying that the taxpaying post was not yours was completely beside the point, especially that your january post expressed quite a firm opinion on the subject.

Kindly give your opinion - if you have one and if you care about the subject - rather than side comments bordering on disingenuousness.

[dot king]

V, go do something useful - I don't dance to your tune.
Sometimes you're nothing short of pathetic.

[dot king]

Dumb Insolence

I'm big for ten years old
Maybe that's why they get at me

Teachers, parents, cops
Always getting at me

When they get at me

I don't hit 'em
They can do you for that

I don't swear at 'em
They can do you for that

I stick my hands in my pockets
And stare at them

And while I stare at them
I think about sick

They call it dumb insolence

They don't like it
But they can't do you for it

I've been done before
They say if I get done again

They'll put me in a home
So I do dumb insolence

© Adrian Mitchell

[V]

Miss Marple shows self flagellating abilities no one would have ever suspected before. A great day for mankind. We wish her all the good luck, and we hope she'll recover her famous purity of soul and geniality :)