Already hundreds of thousands of tourists in France have had planes delayed or canceled over French union strikes.
Gas stations are running out of gas thanks to a strike at refineries. Nuclear power plants have been hit as well.
French unions vow to increase strikes. They will target trains and buses next.
Please consider French Transport Strikes to Intensify as Valls Digs In on Law.
French unions seeking to overturn an unpopular labor law are set to intensify their protests as the government shows no sign of giving in after a week of strikes and blockades caused gas stations in many regions of the country to run dry.
By the end of this week, the national railroad, the Paris metro, ports and air traffic controllers will all be on strike, though the degree to which the actions will be followed is unclear.
After a week in which many French gas stations faced shortages and some protests turned violent, Prime Minister Manuel Valls in a series of weekend interviews said the government will not back down on the labor law or the contentious article 2 that lets companies negotiate labor contracts outside industry-wide accords.
“France must show that it’s capable of reforming,” Valls said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. Valls said he spoke by phone on Saturday with union leaders including with Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT, which has been leading the opposition to the labor law.
Trains, Planes
Four unions including the CGT have called for an unlimited strike at the national railroad SNCF starting Tuesday, the CGT has called for a stoppage at the RATP, which manages Paris’ metro and buses starting Thursday and the UNSA-INCA union of air traffic controllers has called for a strike June 3-5. The CGT has called for a 24-hour strike Thursday at France’s ports.
All the strikes are linked to labor disputes specific to those sectors, but are also aimed at forcing a withdrawal of the labor law. Another union, Force Ouvriere, has called for transport strikes to start June 10, the opening day of the European soccer championships that France is hosting.
According to a Ifop poll for Journal du Dimanche, 46 percent of the French want the law withdrawn, 40 percent want it modified, and only 13 percent want it to pass in its current form. The poll questioned 982 people on May 27 and 28. Meanwhile, Valls’s popularity in May fell six points to 24 percent, its lowest ever, a BVA poll said Saturday.
Unions, union rules, and French labor laws in general are literally strangling France, yet people still support those laws.
This is further escalation of my May 25 article, France Running Out of Gasoline; Strikes Now Spread to Nuclear Plants.
Carry on Dudes
By all means, carry on dudes. The massive “Code du Travail” (Labor Code) says you have rights.
“The Code du Travail is regarded by many in France as untouchable. Successive governments have chiselled away at its 10,000 articles – notably easing restrictions on layoffs and working hours – but without ever daring a comprehensive overhaul.”
PATCO Moment Needed
Ronald Reagan provided the precisely need solution for union insanity. Reagan fired them every PATCO (air traffic control union employee) who would not return to work when ordered.
I wrote about this once before, also in regards to France. Flashback October 12, 2010: French Unions On Strike Against Pension Reform, Disrupt Rail, Air Traffic.
The correct government response to this mess is to do what Reagan did to the PATCO workers, fire all the public union employees on strike and terminate their benefits.
Moreover, the French government should take this opportunity handed to them on a silver platter and go one step further to make a much needed change and dissolve all public unions. The same should happen in the US.
This would end the nonsense quickly and effectively. As in the US, there would be lines miles long to take those jobs at much lower wage and benefit levels.
Message From FDR
Inquiring minds are reading snips from a Letter from FDR Regarding Collective Bargaining of Public Unions written August 16, 1937.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.
The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees.
A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
FDR was correct.
Reagan was correct, but he did not go far enough.Reagan should have dissolved every public union.
Had he done so. We would not have the pension/state budget crisis we have today.
Humorous France Flashbacks
- November 20, 2013: Mish Fined 8,000 Euros for Quoting French Blog
- December 24, 2013: Lawyer Advises Me “Don’t Go to France”; French Pub Fined €9,000 for Using “Undeclared Labor” after Customers Returned Empties to Bar
I did not pay the fine and I will not go to France. Somewhere along the line, France notified me in English that all further communication would be in French and that I had to respond in French.
I get express packets every now and again from France, in French and I throw them away. The latest was a few weeks ago.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Imagine the untapped power of the union if they actually did the same thing over the no-go zones.
The wealthy and the public Unions work together to strangle the public good. The wealthy benefit from the huge debt incurred by Government Spending(debt=money.) Public Unions and the banks are.now parasites that control the life of the host. Rip it out and like France cN be shut down and brought to the stone age
If you are going to continually quote FDR, you should also quote him on national health insurance, minimum wage laws, progressive income tax, regulation of Wall Street, government work programs, labor unions in the private sector, social security, etc.
Ever since Reagan fired PATCO, the average worker has been taking it on the chin while the 1% fat cats get obscenely fat.
How about quotes putting Japs (and to a lesser extent Germans and Italians in concentration camps)?
FDR was a broken clock. Kind of pointless to quote him most of the time, yet occasionally, he just happened to get something right.
“Ever since Reagan fired PATCO, the average worker has been taking it on the chin while the 1% fat cats get obscenely fat.”
And, http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
What average government worker, where, how much has he or she lost.? Define your assertion please.
The French are funny.
They do nothing while their leaders import millions of low skilled muslim immigrants who immediately go on the dole and begining murdering and raping infidels.
But if the government makes it just an wee easier to fire (and hire) an employee…
Somewhere between Noam Chomsky and Ron Reagan is the ultimate truth. Unions are a manifestation of democracy. Can’t desire one while bemoaning the other. When unions flourish you know you may have too much democracy. When they die they are the canary in the coal mine telling you the democratic oxygen is falling too low. Especially true for private sector unions.
When has a public union EVER died?
Even in Detroit after bankruptcy – they are still the parasite that will kill the host AGAIN.
I agree somewhere in the middle is desirable. Unchecked capitalism destroys itself by becoming a monopoly. Unchecked labor laws destroys itself by driving out corporations. Both are forms of economic tyranny. The metaphor I use is society is a dome, and everyone has philosophies to creating a better society represented by the top of the dome. At the bottom of the dome it is very easy to pick a direction and apply effort toward the top. Many philosophies have desirable points. Once near the top too much of a good thing causes society to blow past, and accelerate quickly to the downside. System stability is, therefore, elusive since there is no perfect philosophy or society.
“I agree somewhere in the middle is desirable. Unchecked capitalism destroys itself by becoming a monopoly.”
Unchecked cronyism destroys free market capitalism.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. A cycle is mid way between the peak and the trough, twice. Somewhere in the middle may be desirable, but it is not possible to remain there when things move in cycles.
The French are intent upon impoverishing themselves. I wish them complete success. If Hollande does not follow Mish’s advice we may extrapolate the outcome. Many corporations that cannot reduce their payroll cost yet have less income as consequence of the strikes must file bankruptcy or cease all operations in France. The unemployed French may import what little they can afford.
I keep reading in the EU press open hints of a new Franco-German proposal for an EU government, to be tabled over the summer. Something going on along those lines beyond politicians just fishing for ideas or making suggestions.
The way I read it is that in its current form EU has reached a dead end and needs to further the project or risk it fragment, whether UK leaves or remains does not change that reality by much.
If this is going to be the agenda, not some premature debate, then better keep eyes open as it will spin events in several countries.
Though the mood for change has already installed itself/ been installed, it has not taken to a central control but a nationalistic one, and so how coordinated with , or of replacement to that, a centralized thesis might be, as opposed to acting as a further antagonist, remains to be seen.
Though it is easy to write off EU authority as lame , it actually serves as a mop, a distraction, an excuse, with the real power and ability held by slightly removed institutions, quiet political agreements, and arrangements that are not subject to scrutiny but nevertheless have the ability to authorize scrutiny of the population as a preface to their management.
They can’t bring themselves to keep foreign Muslim terrorists out, or keep guns out of their hands, what are they going to do to bring forth a PATCO moment? The French still have some loyalty, so firing everyone won’t create replacement workers. And they don’t have robotic solutions just yet, and if they did I think there are Franks in the Chaos Computer Club.
They won’t do a real war, but might start a civil war.
The socialist chickens have come home to roost. It couldn’t happen to a better country.
Valls is losing his approval ratings over his position , making him one of France’s least popular prime ministers . Not sure if it is because of the way the work law was passed or that he is not giving in to unions , maybe both .
Travail, as in Code du Travail, means “painful or laborious effort.” More ironically, given the targeting of means of travel by French unions, the French word travail morphed into the English word “travel,” reflecting the painful and dangerous travails of medieval travel.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) might mean more French travail for Mish under the copyright section. Just a heads up to read the fine print, Mish, and see how it applies. Whoops, forgot, it’s secret, as in being a Nancy Pelosi-style surprise. Maybe the French were notifying of your deportation to the Bastille just as soon as TTIP takes effect. Perhaps you should post a jpg of those French notes for some reader to translate. Might be worth a laugh, or have some educational value?
Just remember Mish you can be extradited from any EU country to France. I would not pay either as you merely quoted a French blogger and the facts. The main problem is freedom of speech is eroding daily!
I don’t think they could extradite Mish over this , it is reserved for more serious crime . However this is the direction it is moving in EU , with efforts to make accountability enforceable between member states at whatever level .
The main problems for Mish are that he has his name tagged as a target by the French , that the contempt and non payment might get bumped up to some other kind of more serious charge , that French influence might be used somehow in the US to cause him trouble .
The legal frameworks of one country alone can be undecipherable in the way they work – no one can fully secure how a sentence will be pronounced . When dealing with a mixture of foreign state prosecution , ever changing international law , legislative and financial interactions between countries , you just cannot ever figure what is going on and why , and by the time you do get an idea , usually it is still way overhead .
I think they will leave Mish alone eventually , but I would not count on it , and no one enjoys the feeling, or waste of energy, being persecuted brings .
i must admit that i have a lot of sympathy for those French unions here.
this “The Code du Travail” sounds like such a good thing,
that maybe the French should get it enshrined into European law in the very near future,
say, just after the British muppets vote to remain in the EU (for ever and ever and ever)
(i should post a youtube clip of Demis Roussos, at this point)
Then, when all those British muppets are congratulating themselves on this “achievement”
then the French should elect Le Pen, or some other nut, and leave EU forthwith
(why bother with referendums when you have already made up your own mind)
and put their own house in order as they see fit.
The French government has to use Article 49-3 and pass a law that stipulates that all illegal strike is an act of terrorism punishable by 10 000 euros fine or 5 years in prison service.
The other possibility is to sue all these syndicats and their members who participate to the strikes for financial loses.
Or just buy a nice bottle of wine and sit back and relax and enjoy!
Table of called strikes
http://www.lefigaro.fr/assets/infographie/print/2anime/WEB_201620_calendrier_greves/calendrier.html
The European Banana Union is coming down… how anyone could have believed that a monetary union would work in Europe is beyond me. Now… the monetary union was of course just a step towards a European Federation… now… that would have led to complete madness.
Viva la Revolution ! (crazy frogs).
Nope. The EuroZone and Euro are stronger than ever and the Euro is the second most important currency in the world other than the US dollar and the EuroZone will be around and thriving for many decades and centuries ahead. The European Union (EU) as a whole is the largest economy in the world and slightly larger than the single country US economy and there are more than 500,000,000 people in the EU.
Sounds like just another typical day in France. All is just fine though down in the French Riviera!
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Oh man. Mish, you’re an international fugitive! 🙂
Europe is imploding from trivials and distractions, much as the USA. The difference will be the millions of imported, unassimilated MENA people that will turn it into an ugly, ugly explosion that will shock globally.
The sly, more important fox in the chicken coop will be ignored because the chickens are squawking at each other over tidbits, and the self-serving farmer doesn’t care if a few chickens are sacrificed. It isn’t until the farmer hasn’t got any stock left that he actually gets concerned. Hence my opinion that global elites are such idiots. I can foresee a French Revolution on a global scale in our future when the breaking point is achieved. Funny how it might actually originate in France again.