Labor: France:Updating the French laborlaw riots story + labor union structure in France

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An ultimatum has been presented to France's Chirac-Villepin government by "France's biggest labour unions" (which means not all the country's unions are backing the demands of the socialist and communist unions; there remains a Christian-democratic union in the country, and there are others; but make no mistake this struggle is, first and foremmost, an ideological war). Ireland On-Line reports that the Left unions have set "10-day deadline today for the government to revoke a divisive jobs law, threatening more protests and strikes that have spiralled into a national crisis" (Apr5,2k6).

The national crisis is not only industrial and political because the tidal wave of protest, rioting, and violence affects every sphere of existence, and les françaises who can avoid the events are rare and disciplined individuals and families, indeed. Or just out to lunch.

Massive marches yesterday drew more than 1 million protesters for the second time in a week, and brought renewed violence – putting unions in a position of strength as they headed into the discussions [that are scheduled with the government - P].

Pockets of protest [these are the more radical elements, revolutionary left activists, or les militants du mouvement travailleur...those who Marx called the revolutionary proletariat, with the exception that many of these folk have never held a blue-collar job, and do drive Porsches and Citroëns - P] continued today as demonstrators blocked roads, rail lines and mail delivery trucks around the country. Dozens of universities have been closed by protesters and many high schools have had classes disrupted. ... Unless the conservative government revokes the law by April 15, unions [say they] will organise “a new, strong period of mobilisation, not ruling out any means of action...”

IOL's reporter doesn't pause here to report how those affected negatively by the huge massification of extremism are being just as radically alienated by the impact on their lives, and thus French society proceeds to become quite polarized despite its wide diversity. Nor does IOL's report tell us just what unions have signed onto the "joint statement" threatening extremist measures "not ruling out any means of action...." Car burnings in enemy neighbourhoods, assassinations of Gaullist party leaders, fire-bombings, plastications, suicide bombings? These are all part of France's history in the Gaullist vs. Leftist period since the Colonial War in Algeria that spilled into the cafés of la France propre. There were few signs of compromise on Left labour's side, altho "Francois Chereque, head of the moderate CFDT union, emerged from meetings with parliamentary leaders praising them for 'listening' to his complaints."

CFDT = Conféderation française démocratique du travail, in English the French Democratic Confederation of Labor. Neither socialist, nor communist; but neither is it CFTC - Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens which is affiliated to the World Confederation of Labor based in Geneva, Switzerland and which describes itself as the "International trade union confederation uniting autonomous and democratic trade unions with Christian leanings from 113 countries all over the world." It is to this body that CLAC [Christian Labour Association of Canada] is affiliated, and to which CLA-USA is also oriented. "CLAC is a multicraft, independent trade union that represents workers in Canada through collective bargaining and workplace representation on the basis of Christian social princpiles, and open to all." CLA-USA is the older of the two (1931), and while smaller than its Canadian counterpart, is steadily growing in the USA.

Meanwhile, in France, President Jacques Chirac’s ruling party is in hopes of ending a stand-off that has thrown the country into turmoil and damaged his prime minister and protégé, Dominique de Villepin."

At a Cabinet meeting, Chirac said he hoped the talks with unions would be constructive, according to a government spokesman. “Students must be able to prepare for exams, and high schoolers must go back to school,” he added.

The leader of the Communist-backed CGT union, Bernard Thibault, left his meeting [with Chirac's team] saying he was “more confident than ever about the exit to this battle,” adding: “It is very clear that nothing will be able to happen without a change in the government’s position.”

The law is designed to jolt France’s rigid labour market and reduce high youth unemployment by making it easier for companies to hire – and fire – young workers. Opponents fear it will damage job security. [The underlinings are refWrit's and represent our view about the core issue which is one of justice for increasing employment among excluded youth of immigrant-parentage and ethnic-minority stigma. The law intends to distribute jobs on a less ethnically-discriminatory basis, while allowing small business owners to fire easily those who don't work out - P.]

Unions decided to wait until Monday to set a date for another major, nationwide day of protests and urged demonstrations on the local level for Saturday.

The opposition Socialist Party submitted a bill to parliament today to repeal the law and urged that it be debated before politicians break for holidays on April 15.

“We want to offer the country a way out of the crisis,” Socialist leader Francois Hollande said.

Yesterday’s marches were mostly peaceful, although hooligan violence marred the end of the largest protest, in Paris. Several hundred youths ripped up street signs and park benches and hurled stones and chunks of paving at police.

The police responded with tear gas and rubber pellets and made repeated charges, carrying away those they arrested.

Police said 626 people were taken into custody nationwide, more than half in Paris. Thirty people and four police officers were also slightly injured. Officials said the unrest involved some youths from Paris’ tougher suburbs. [refWrite's underlining - note that some cross-overs from last year's Arab and African ethnic-minority youth riots did occur, but apprently they were marginal to the present crisis which involves old-stock French youth who want the job security to which they feel entitled, resisting both their ethnic/racial privilege and the impossible economics of France's over-socialized non-competitive business climate. That is headed toward a further crisis of which the present one is only a prelude. - P]

Villepin championed the law to stem youth unemployment rates of 22%, and as high as 50% in some depressed, heavily immigrant suburbs [underlinings - P] hit by weeks of riots last year.

Not all the info in the IOL report conforms with the outline of the structure of the national umbrella of labour organizations in France. It may become important to understand this structure better in order to follow events in France's most important political crisis, at least since May 1968. But this round is different. EMIRE (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) presents this outline of the structure of France's umbrella and forum called Trade Union Confederation which encompasses the five ideologically-diverse France-wide labour central-organizations capable of representing workers on the national level:

National trade union body, in most cases multi-industry, serving as an umbrella organization for individual national trade unions, area unions at département and regional level, and occupational or industrial federations.

Five such confederations have been recognized as representative (see representativeness) at national level, and they have a major role to play. Not only do they ensure that labour interests are protected, but they also regulate the functioning of the confederated organizations attached to them. And they participate in the formulation of the rules of labour and social security law. In practice, a considerable amount of power is concentrated in their hands.

The five confederations possessing representative status are as follows:

CFDT: Confédération française démocratique du travail (French Democratic Confederation of Labour). This trade union confederation is a continuation of the French Christian Workers' Confederation, which changed its name in 1964 in order to mark the wish of the majority of its members to eliminate any religious connotation.

Purely in terms of the results of workplace-level elections , i.e. the votes won by the candidates standing in its name, it occupies second place among the confederations.

CFTC: Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens (French Christian Workers' Confederation). Trade union confederation originally formed in 1919, whose name has been preserved by the minority of its members who were opposed to the elimination of the religious connotation which took place in 1964 (see CFDT , French Democratic Confederation of Labour, above) and broke away in order to maintain its traditional image.

CGC-CFE: Confédération générale des cadres-Confédération française de l'encadrement (General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff). Trade union confederation which was originally formed in 1946 and then known simply as the CGC. It is the only one of the five confederations possessing recognized representative status at national level which is intended for a single occupational category. The other four do, however, have professional and managerial employees among their members. Consequently, the CGC-CFE does not possess monopoly representation of this category, whose definition is in any case uncertain.

CGT: Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour). As the oldest of the five representative trade union confederations, this confederation was created in two stages, in 1895 and 1906. It has left its mark on the entire labour movement and still occupies first place among the confederations in terms of the number of votes won in workplace-level elections and, undoubtedly, the number of its members, although it has lost the pre-eminent position it occupied until as recently as 30 years ago. The links between some of its senior officials (and in particular its General Secretary) and the Communist Party have frequently been the subject of much emphasis and comment. But it has to be remembered that the transformation of society is one of the objectives of the French trade union movement as it exists today.

CGT-FO: Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière (General Confederation of Labour-"Force ouvrière"). This trade union confederation (also known simply as FO), was formed in 1947 in the climate of the start of the "cold war", by some of the CGT's officials and member unions. It was therefore born in the name of "trade union independence", which, in the early years, mainly signified hostility towards the CGT because of its links with the Communist Party, and nowadays embodies the total rejection of all ties with political parties, the active promotion of collective bargaining (particularly at multi-industry and industry level) and a certain reluctance towards any form of integration within the enterprise. The confederation, whose member unions embrace widely diverse ideological persuasions, claims to be the true heir of a trade unionism whose heritage is free and unfettered collective bargaining.

In summary, dear readers, I'm keeping my eyes on the conflict between the Gaullists vs French unions, as well as the conflicts among the Gaullists (Prime Minister de Villepin vs. Interior Minister Sarkozy) and among the labour unions > Communist CGT vs independentist FO (AFL-style) vs ex-Christian Labor (CFDT) + Christian Labor (CFTC). - Politicarp -----------------------------
See below refWrite's Apr3,2k6 related blog-entry, France: Labor: Labor-law riots follow 2005 'immigrant' youth-riots of Arab, African ethnic France-born minorities. Or click it up to permlink the annotated chronology leading up to present French national crisis.===========================

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