France to Strike on Thursday

[Lawrence of Arabia]

yeah its about chirac screwing with the 35 hr week, and a loss of purchasing power.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
and thats what everyones doing. so you have 10 million parisiens all in their peugots trying to drive to work when normally the vast majority of them take the RER/ metro. in paris' small streets, that means huge cluster****s and disruptions.

Maybe a motorcycle or bicycle would be better.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by VJ
Yes, but I wouldn't blame that on Chirac, just like I don't blame the destructive widespread cocaine use and glorification of pornography in US in the late 1970s on Carter.

It would be wrong to blame it entirely on Chirac and his team indeed. The French society is suffering from the ill effects of globalization, and from a massive societal change. However, Chirac's team is significantly responsible for the malaise as well, because they have punished the unemployed, because they do nothing for the workers, and because they generally only care for the employers except when it's political suicide. Unless you're the kind of guy who thinks that the interests of the employers are always morally superior to the interestes of the employees, you can understand what's wrong with that.

Edit: to clarify: IMO it's the selfish French people who are to blame, refusing to budge even towards minor reforms, constantly striking and taking somesort of bizarre pleasure from only making their own problems worse (you seem to be happy because French economy will suffer because of the strike -- I think that's a very odd attitude, it's your nation, you live in it, it's you who'll suffer from it).

1. I'm a commie. It's my nature to enjoy strikes. However, my party represents at best 8% of the French people.
2. The strikes doesn't come from a bizarre pleasure of blocking the economy (which you'll see in Sava's and Odin's posts rather than mine, btw). They come from several causes, the main one being the strong social malaise happening in France at the time.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
the unions are pretty strong eh?

Actually, French unions are very weak in France in comparison with other European countries because of the nature of the French class warfare. The unions and the employers agree on at least one thing: the Unions shouldn't be responsible for the management of a company. Unlike in, say, Germany, where there's a general understanding between unionists and employers, the French class warfare is highly polarized between employers and employees, who generally misunderstand/hate each other (and these times, the blame can be laid on the employers more than on the employees).

As a result, many people are afraid to go union, or simply don't trust the unionjs to havce responsible demands. That's the two main reasons why unions are so weak. BTW, since Chirac's re-election, the employers have become more arrogant and assholish than before, and the unions (excpet the "consensual" one) have made significant progresses. Considering that the State doesn't defend the interests of the common man anymore, that's not a surprise.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It'd be nice to see the government break the stikers (by not giving in, not by pummeling them), but the French have no balls to do that.

Our government generally uses more subtle methods. It's hard to tell the train-drivers to go **** themselves, because they are well organized, but pretty much every other profession is ridiculed by the govt.

For example, truck drivers are among the most exploitated people in France. They generally manage a serious strike once a decade, because their extremely precarious lifestyle prevents them from doing any more. The two last time, the government announced significant improvements for the everyday life of truck drivers. Useless to say, they never respected their promises

Fortunately, the train drivers live in less precarious conditions, and if they're ****ed with, they can go on strike and block the economy again. They're among the few professions that can reallw get listened to when they go on strike

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Odin
Strikes:

This is about Chirac f*cking with the 35hr week I presume?

Not quite. The strikes about it took place one month ago or something. These strikes are about the plummetting purchasing power.

[Saras]

Originally posted by St Leo

Originally posted by Saras
15 years of LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE

14 years, actually. It's not 2006 yet, silly.

We (re-)declared it on March 11, 1990, silly, unlike our sissy northern cousins

[Lawrence of Arabia]

well it looks like the french govt has given in, retroactive to March 3rd

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-401207,0.html

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Not quite. The strikes about it took place one month ago or something. These strikes are about the plummetting purchasing power.

I hope these bastards don't get paid since they didn't show up to work so their purchasing power falls even further.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Saras
We (re-)declared it on March 11, 1990, silly, unlike our sissy northern cousins

Ah. I am pwned. You are my deity.

[Dinner]

Damn, uppity Baltics.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I hope these bastards don't get paid since they didn't show up to work so their purchasing power falls even further.

1. Indeed, they aren't paid for strike days, unless exceptional circumstances (which didn't happen yesterday)

2. Why bastards? In fact, I don't remember the SNCF staff having ever been so polite and helpful with me than yesterday. And I have a long and positive experience with them

[pchang]

I have encountered very lazy SNCF workers. In one case, they made me wait in a security line before boarding the TGV because they were all on a break. I ended up missing the train and had to get another connection (I ended having to find a local from Calaise to Lille).

[Giancarlo]

Looking at this thread, it seems the left is cheering about screwing many millions of people... typical..

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by pchang
I have encountered very lazy SNCF workers. In one case, they made me wait in a security line before boarding the TGV because they were all on a break. I ended up missing the train and had to get another connection (I ended having to find a local from Calaise to Lille).

Tried out British trains? They make you wait because there are a few leaves on the lines.