French labour laws trigger immense protests

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Oerdin


10% seems like a tiny minority compared to the remaining 90%. Also I have noticed people who disagree with these activists tend to get beaten up, harassed, and shouted down by this minority. I don't see how a democracy can work in such an environment.

Bingo... look at what group has received the most punishment in the past few weeks...

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Bingo. Arab youth, who have something like 25% unemployment realizes that this plan will allow more youth to be hired.

That's a gross misunderstanding of the motives behind the cités' youth. Remember November 2005? What was their political platform already?

[Fake Boris]

Now Oerdin you do the math... millions of people in protests... strikes voted at 90% + majority... is the silent majority living under a rock?

[David Floyd]

The people in the court are entitled to their opinions, and like all the people who have a little window of visibility, they use it to express their opinion. I wouldn't be surprised that most of them are free-marketeers (considering that the president has been a right-winger for the past 11 years, and that the senate has always been on the right), and that they can do a free-marketeer political statement. Not that their political statements have any use: they don't have any authority about the value of the law (only its constitutional validity), and they haven't added anything new to the debate.

My only point, though, is that their entire decision is an opinion which holds the validity of law. You seem to agree with the part of it that upholds the constitutionality of the CPE, but not the part that says it's a good thing for young workers. That's fine, except that my impression of the article is that a good bit of the case AGAINST the CPE was the issue of age discrimination, and in specifically addressing this issue the Constitutional Court said that it was not age discrimination, in part because the law benefits the young.

You're right, it is an opinion, but I can't see how you can accept one part of the Court's opinion and reject another part, when the second part of the opinion forms part of the basis for the first.

[C0ckney]

Figure this out: I don't have a stable job. I currently have daily contracts. I can be fired (or more accurately, not re-hired) any day on the whim of my boss. Which is why I'm non-union as well.

spiff don't you work as a labourer on a building site? i mean what do you expect, a pension plan?

it really blows my mind that people think that 20%+ youth unemployment is an acceptable situation.

[Fake Boris]

in part because the law benefits the young.

So the CPE is affirmative action according to you?

[David Floyd]

So the CPE is affirmative action according to you?

No, not at all. It's simply a law that benefits young people by giving employers a reason that makes business sense to hire them.

Affirmitive action, it seems, is what the young people protesting this law want - that is, they seem to want the government to force employers to hire young people and extend France's extensive employment protections to them at the same time.

They either want that, or they have no problem with continuing high unemployment. I don't know which, but both are pretty idiotic.

[ajbera]

Some morons think the world owes them a job merely because they're alive.

[David Floyd]

Yep, and nations like France do nothing but negatively reinforce those attitudes.

[ajbera]

https://www.despair.com

[DanS]

Oof.

[Colon™]

That is so cruel.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by David Floyd


No, not at all. It's simply a law that benefits young people by giving employers a reason that makes business sense to hire them.

You are correct, in fact I think the only real valid argument you could have against the CPE is that is unfair to workers who are just above age 26. Businesses will have a real disincentive to hire people age 27-30 since they won't have that much more experience then 26 year olds, but it will be alot more risky to hire them.

That, and I can't really see something like this as being enough to really revitalize France's economy, since they are still competing against other economies who have sane labor laws for all ages.

[DanS]

You might be surprised at some of the insane labor laws among France's competitors...

[Colon™]

*nods*