While French unions step up protests against labour reforms, over 100,000 homes and businesses in France were left struggling without power on Thursday after workers in Brittany cut off the electricity supply from a power station. Demonstrators continue to hit the streets to voice their opposition to the legislation, sometimes getting involved in intense clashes with police.
I have given my cure already. Fire the whole damn lot of them just as president Ronald Reagan did with PATCO employees.
There will be short-term pain, but it won’t happen again.
PATCO Moment Needed
Ronald Reagan provided the precisely needed solution for union insanity. Reagan fired 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.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
One should be circumspect with “firing the whole lot” when standing yourself in gasoline which encompasses both you and them.
How many times did the US bail out France?… And before we bailed them out, their revolution, the Mississippi scheme, …
To fire them they would have to change the law . I don’t know the current state participation in the industries that are striking , but there must be an irony that they are/were traditionally state managed . When farmers strike , you cannot really fire them either.
Realistically you are not going to be able to train up thousands of rail staff , power station staff , very easily , and in fact it would be as likely that other strikes would start if you tried to tamper with the non-ability to fire workers . The only thing that might see something like that happen is if a party was voted in on that promise , or if the army took over the running of the country while it was ‘sorted out’ .
I don’t find anything special about government strikes either . Why should a worker or group of workers not be able to choose to strike (and get fired) , or just quit the job even ? Being the one who pays does not make you automatically right , whether public or private, and workers hold a lot of leverage , especially if they act as a group (nothing to stop everyone just walking out) … but the bargaining should start with the hand laid square on the table , the employer risks losing his business and the employee risks losing his job … both get to have a good game of extortion and playing the hard done by , hopefully reaching an agreement over whatever was amiss in the process .
Can’t run a company or a country if your employees don’t accept you as boss , and shareholders would usually fire the boss who brought them continual strikes .
Without some common sense, probably all will go broke in the end, while arguing over who lacked that sense .
Nonesense. Firing the striking employees would results in short term pain as Mish has already stated. I own a company with multiple locations. When I purchased a competitor, the acquired employees thought it would be a good idea to make new wage & benefit demands. They even staged a walk out & closed the facility for almost 3 weeks. At the end of the 3rd week, I had hired enough replacements at the original wage levels & benefits to reopen. I haven’t encountered any issues with the most recent acquisitions.
In the real world, there isn’t a finite number of job seekers, not am I the only employer. When one side or the other gets out of line, the market will provide us with feedback.
Reagan had a good number of advantages vis a vis PATCO, not least that the air traffic system could run relying upon military operators and also that PATCO’s position did not enjoy public support. The French government does not have those crucial advantages in the present dispute.
I am not sure banning unions but when they strike illegally without due negotiation process or make unreasonable demands, the army should step in and take over such things as power stations. After all, it is the nation’s and its peoples infrastructure and safety we are talking here.
Some people might be depending on machines keeping them alive or similar. Not to mention the losses due to melting storage of food etc.
Most, if not all, the strikes are within law. What happens is the protests that go on at the same time go beyond what is allowed ( cutting power cables, some of the picketing etc.) , but those aren’t actually the strikes, but public disorder and revolt… based on unwanted government legislation and often by the workers themselves, but not as workers.
The government and law enforcement know that there is only a narrow margin between certain kinds of unrest and a bigger uprising, so it is cat and mouse. To push through legislation by exemption was probably not a good idea, unless they wanted confrontation and have a plan that matches.
Banning Unions is not on the table. Banning them from monopolizing public sector labor supply, is.
In the private sector, excessive union demands at one company, simply ends up transferring competitiveness to other companies with better labor relations. Meaning, there’s built in safety valve.
For public sector employees there is not. Instead. Via political action, public sector unions end up effectively sitting on both side of the table in wage/benefit negotiations. With politicians on the other. And tax payers, who are the ones stuck paying for it all in the end, on neither.
On the second point, you’d have to be running a pretty primitive national infrastructure, if a bunch of Army grunts could “take it over” without much loss. A bit like conscribing 18 year olds to perform brain surgery…
You mean that such troops like Royal Engineers can’t match civil ones? http://www.army.mod.uk/royalengineers/26293.aspx
Unfortunately you will always have politicians who pander to the unions for their campaign contributions and votes. The end result is unaffordable and underfunded pensions and benefits and unions with ever increasing political clout.
Look at the number of cities in this country that are facing bankruptcy .
The unemployment rate in France is particularly high because employers are very reluctant to hire new employees because they are essentially hiring them for life. Their labor code makes it almost impossible to fire or layoff employees irrespective of the company’s financial straits .
FBI investigations, stress, alcoholism and liver failure causes coughing.
start building a power cable to China. Funded by issuing some French bonds to China. Cheap funding, Cheap power. No strikes. No jobs in France,
Lawyer Advises Me “Don’t Go to France”;
If I were you Mish I’d make sure that your “offence” does not fall within the remit of the European arrest warrant and if it does it would probably be a good idea to check out whether the French have issued one before you go to any European country.
Let the French bury the French.
There’s a history lesson there.
The people “getting involved in intense clashes with police” have nothing to do with the workers on strike. They are some kind of professional demonstrators, many of them are not french, and you can find them also for example in some G7 meetings.
One must not compare Hollande with FDR and Reagan, because Hollande’s approval rating is below 15%, which was probably not the case of FDR or Reagen.
Its a mixture. The “casseurs’ ( breakers) , the police, and genuine protestors are all known to push events beyond peaceful.
Even the occasional American involved
http://www.france24.com/en/20160530-american-charged-over-police-car-attack-paris-protests
Let them eat cake!!! No min wage–push them back into slavery and allow CEOs to raise their compensation MUCH, MUCH higher! Unions suck and drain the wealthy of much needed money!! Hooray for MISH–brilliant!!!
The French unemployment rate is what, 10%?
Theirs is likely more messed up than ours, but 10.5% officially – In April
Mish,
I remember wnen you could ignore a speeding ticket from another state and nothing would happen. That is not the case now. Once the international court takes over they will start garnishing your wages.
who ever would garnish Mishes ‘wages’ would first need to get Mishes ‘boss’ and Mishes ‘HR dept.’ and Mishes ‘accounting dept’ and Mishes ‘payroll depart’ on board
rather unlikely to happen 🙂
Mish. Hooray again! More companies can now screw the workers even more. I see you smiling again.
FAIR GAME
Norman Stein, a legal expert at the Pension Rights Center, worries about a race to the bottom in benefit programs.
When Your 401(k) Is Better for Your Employer
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Some companies are using legal tactics to shield themselves from litigation over issues like fees and plan choices, sometimes at members’ expense.
Poor, poor companies, facing lawsuits over those freaking retirees!
When people trust companies with their labour, for some reason trusting them with their money follows.
I am not sure if companies fool employees, or employees fool themselves.
Probably a little of both.
There are no easy ways to protect from deceit, eliminating its culture is probably the closest, and that goes all the way to the top, as well as being woven into, of and by society.
The ultimate garantor should be the law, but by then people have already lost and must pay more trying to seek redemption. So the only real effect law may have is one of disuasion, and clearly it does not, simply because by the time a principle is known as enforced, a different way around it has already been invented.
What to do, but lessons of some kind will be learnt.
Since corporate defined benefit plans are almost extinct, public defined benefit plans would be doomed regardless. Pensions simply cannot be funded with negative real rate bonds. They can strike till the cows come home, but it won’t change a thing as long as Mario keeps printing.
In effect, Mario is slowly confiscating the pensions and savings of Euro workers, and using the loot to bail out bankers. Reducing Greek pensions is just the start of what is to come.
French unions should be applauded.
Look what they’re doing for team Brexit,
not to mention Marine Le Pens chances in next election.
at least French unions are allowed to express their opinions, while they still can
Actions have clearly gone from strike to treason/terrorism with purposeful destruction of national infrastructure. Let them eat prison food!!!