French labour laws trigger immense protests

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Arrian
Layoffs are sometimes necessary. I just wish the shareholders held the guys who managed the company into that position more accountable.

I thought you were talking about mergers that involve layoffs. In that case the shareholders expect the layoffs. There was just a takeover in the newspaper industry and the aquirer announced right away that there would be layoffs specifically to reassure investors that cuts would be made in order to finance the takeover.

An active board of directors w/integrity for one thing.

You mean like in France?

More employee share ownership for another.

Employees will never own a significant amount of the company. The major shareholders and board would never allow it. Employee ownership is always at insignificant levels.

[Dauphin]

You'd need a company to be founded as a co-operative to have any real success at the last one. There are quite a few good examples of where it works.

[Dinner]

The management of GM has been consistantly one of the worst in the industry for several decades now. Just short sighted worrying about next quarter results instead of looking at the long term best interests of the company. That's why they keep underengineering their cars and using older technologies instead of spending more to get the best technologies. Sure, their quality is top notch but but the technolgies they use are often subpar (I.E. push rod engines, live rear axles, etc...). The unions have only made things worse by demanding pay rates 50% higher then many other factories (once benifets are counted) and by having lower productivity (as measured by the number of man hours needed to complete a single car).

Like British Leyland GM has bad management and bad unions both of which are refusing to make the needed changes.

[Kidlicious]

GM had $20.4b in unrestricted cash at the end of last year. I think they were keeping it for demands on it in the future. Unfortunately when you keep that much cash you attract sharks like Kerkorian. That cash is going to be sucked up quick and GM is going be left for dead.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Arrian
Layoffs are sometimes necessary.

QFT

I just wish the shareholders held the guys who managed the company into that position more accountable. But that would require... well, a lot of things, probably. An active board of directors w/integrity for one thing. More employee share ownership for another.

Employee share ownership is a mirage. Except in a few high-added-value companies, employees almost never have enough capital to invest in the company to make employee share ownership anything but a token.

What needs to be done is to shift the accountability of the company, from those who own it, to those who acutally work and spend their waking life in it. But this cannot be done through employee share ownership, because the employees can't provide enough money. This must be done in another way.

[Spiffor]

Frm the BBC:

France hit by mass job protests

More than one million people are estimated to have protested across France on Tuesday against the government's youth employment laws.
[added: this is the police estimation. The unions claim about 3 millions have protested tuesday. I have noticed the police has considerably decresaed its estimates (or increased its lying, as you wish) in the past years, and I don't think the unions have catched on them yet]

Fighting broke out as protesters gathered in Paris, and missiles were hurled at police as they moved into the crowds to try to remove troublemakers.

Tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse the protesters, and by late evening just a small group remained.

A nationwide strike has also caused travel chaos throughout the country.

[...]

Meanwhile workers and students in more than 100 other towns and cities were calling for the government to scrap the controversial employment contracts.

Police estimated that just over one million people had taken to the streets across the country.



They made almost 800 arrests around the country - nearly 500 of them in Paris, the National Police Chief Michel Gaudin told The Associated Press.

Unions said up to 250,000 people turned out for a march in Marseille - many more than at the previous worker-student demonstrations on 18 March - although the police put the figure at 28,000.
[added: the people from Marseille enjoy a reputation of exaggerating everything ]

In the western city of Nantes, police put the figure at 42,000, more than double the 18 March turnout. Le Mans, Rouen and Tours also reported increased crowds.

"We are here for our children. We are very worried about what will happen to them," said Philippe Decrulle, a demonstrator in Paris.

"My son is 23, and he has no job. That is normal in France," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Strike bites

Meanwhile a nationwide strike closed large parts of France's transport networks.

As transport workers joined the strike, commuters were left battling with widespread disruption as large parts of the country's rail, bus and air networks came to a halt.

Airport authorities warned of delays and cancellations and urged passengers to check with their airlines.

Schools, post-offices, banks, government offices and unemployment bureaux are also experiencing serious disruption.

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the First Employment Contract (CPE), which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.

The government says it will encourage employers to hire young people but students fear it will erode job stability in a country where more than 20% of 18-to-25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says these latest demonstrations are a real test of the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's resolve, and it is hard to see how he can break the stalemate.

To find a solution without losing face - or ground to his main rival for the presidency, Mr Sarkozy - is proving the biggest challenge of Mr de Villepin's political career, our correspondent adds.

Mr Sarkozy's ruling UMP parliamentary group on Tuesday backed his proposal that the government not rush to enforce the labour laws, instead leaving the door open for further negotiations.

Earlier on Tuesday Mr de Villepin told parliament he was open to talks on employment and possible changes to the contracts, but he did not say he would withdraw them.

Wow. Just wow.

Three million prostestors (according to the unions) is immense. Even the police estimate of 1 million is already amazing. And it was during a weekday at that, when many employees of the private sector wouldn't have dared to strike.

This is the biggest protest so far, and only 10 days after the previous huge protest. Clearly, there's something in the air for Villepin. He has either to back down, or to lose any chance at becoming president now. Especially since his right-wing Sarkozy finally took the opportunity offered to him, and said that the CPE should be removed. The political manoeuvring is going to be intense

[DanS]

What a fvcked up country you've got there, Spiff. Only Villepin is listening to his economists.

"We are here for our children. We are very worried about what will happen to them," said Philippe Decrulle, a demonstrator in Paris.

"My son is 23, and he has no job. That is normal in France," he told the Associated Press news agency.

And one of the reasons he has no job and that is normal in France is because of a rigid labor market.

[Odin]

When the capitalists say they that there is a "rigid labor market" they really mean "wah, wah, we are not being allowed to drive down wages in order to maximize our profits." Capitalism treats labor as a means to an end, that end being the profit of a few, instead of how it should be be, the employee's living being an end unto itself.

Go France!

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by DanS
What a fvcked up country you've got there, Spiff. Only Villepin is listening to his economists.

Economists are ideologues.

At least, French people know when they're being bul****ted, if only the government had the same common sense.

[DanS]

Hey, ho, the roof is on fire.
We don't need no water.
Let the motherf'er burn.

[David Floyd]

When the capitalists say they that there is a "rigid labor market" they really mean "wah, wah, we are not being allowed to drive down wages in order to maximize our profits." Capitalism treats labor as a means to an end, that end being the profit of a few, instead of how it should be be, the employee's living being an end unto itself.

Go France!

So your solution would be what, exactly? Affirmitive Action for young people? Where does it end? Are you in favor of forcing companies to higher proportional percentages of every age, race, and gender group in the country, without being allowed to look at factors like probable productivity or profitability, and then not allow them to fire any worker except in extreme circumstances?

That's essentially what the French protestors are saying. They think that economics and the job sector is basically a government jobs program - they are entitled to get a job and a paycheck whether or not their labor is in demand and whether or not they are productive enough. This type of thing is going to kill France's competitiveness in the global market, and I can't say I feel a bit sorry for them. The French are doing it to themselves by being short-sighted.

**** it, this probably benefits the US, anyway, so I don't really care. I just feel sort of bad for all of those people who will be unemployed because they think this law is a bad thing, and/or all those people who will be hurt because France is increasingly unable to compete globally. Oh well, they can always emigrate.

[David Floyd]

Economists are ideologues.

At least, French people know when they're being bul****ted, if only the government had the same common sense.

Huh? The French government is passing a law that WILL drive down unemployment among young people. Yes, there is the possibility that they will be laid off or fired at some point, but not if they do their job well and/or are in a competitive industry, and even if they are, how is that any different than never having had a job at all? Isn't it better to get some experience on your resume, not to mention some money, even if only for a short time?

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by Odin
When the capitalists say they that there is a "rigid labor market" they really mean "wah, wah, we are not being allowed to drive down wages in order to maximize our profits."

Actually, a rigid labor market is going to drive down wages all on it's own. If you are employer in France, where is your incentive to pay a high wage to any of your workers? With unemployment as high as it is, you'd have no difficulty easily replacing your workers, and it's not too likely your employees will sucsessfully find work anywhere else if you don't pay them enough.

Of course, then again, if you are a communist maybe liberalizing pro-employment policies such as the CPE aren't so good for you. A large number of angry unemployed young people who are dissatisfied with the opportunities provided to them under the current economic system does seem like a perfect ingredient for a revolution.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by JohnT
Here's a chart of French unemployment since 1970. As you note, the two paths diverge rather dramatically in the 1970's. What happened in 1973/74? What law changed?

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/em...publ/etp23.htm

Nothing specifically French. The oil crisis was in 1973-74. Most of Europe has been going downhill ever since.



The "Scandinavian system" is that it's easy to hire/fire people, but in case you're so unlucky to get fired, you can fall back on a safety net, good social security. The problems with the filthy rightwingers in Europe is that they want to flexibilize firing, but don't want to compensate this by better social security.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DanS
Hey, ho, the roof is on fire.
We don't need no water.
Let the motherf'er burn.

It's like Christian Science in a way, God will heal France's problems without needing any changes in the law! .