PoliticsFrance: Labor: French left masses workers to stop govt on pension default

Paris was awash with massed workers who were fi+ing the Sarkozy govt's plan to hold-off retirements and pension pay-outs for 2 years (from 60 to 62 years old).  The over-riding concern of govt is an actuarially-forecast Greek-style state-bankruptcy in France as a result of a demographic shift, where longer lives of the elderly increased pension expenses beyond what govt can afford -- while removing elders from the workforce and removing their income  taxes from the govt's own income-sources prematurely, as far as budget balance in concerned. "The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France," while a sponsoring union put the number at 2.5 million.

The picture captures the scene in Lyons to the southwest of Paris.  The massive force of workers' outrage was expressed in huge demos and rallies across some 220 cities of what's called 'metropolitan France.'  But Sarkozy believes the retirement / pension choke-measure  is necessary to keep the country solvent.  The unions, led by the largest of the flock, the Communist-run CGT (Confédération général du travail - General Confederation of Labor), have little interest in maintaining the economic viability of French society, nor in the financial stability of the French state.

Among the other leftist unions active in the protest were FO (Force Ouvrière = Work's Force) and CFDT (Confederation francaise democratique travailleur = French Democratic Confederation of Labor). "The CFDT was created in 1964 when a majority of the members of the Christian trade union Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens (CFTC) decided to become secular (cf. the once-Catholic trade union in Québec, CSN). The minority kept the name CFTC." Thereafter CFDT wandered into various alliances with leftwing political parties. "In 2003, the support of the new CFDT leader François Chérèque of the [govt's] plan of pensions reform caused an internal crisis. Some CFDT members left the confederation and chose the CGT or the [politically] autonomous trade unions Solidaires unitaires démocratique (SUD) (Union SNUI-SUD Trésor Solidaires - apparently concentrated among financial sector workers, and politically unaligned). However, the CFDT participated with the other confederations in the 2006 conflict about the Contrat première embauche (CPE)." More recently, the Christian labor union of France won 8.69% of the vote in the employee's college during the 2k08 professional elections (whereas the CFDT won in excess of 20%). The "employees' college" is a foundational institution of labor-representation pluralism in France, altho even in this respect French pluralism is far more volatile, whereas in the Netherlands it is far more stable. UK, Canada, USA, and Australia have no labor-representational pluralism, sad to say.

In any case, the hot issue of pension reform is among those which have brawt down President Sarkozy's standing in the general opinion polls, where he presently garners only 30%.

UPDATE (Sept 9, 2k10l 3:24 AM Eastern Dayl+t T+m):

"French Protest against raising the retirement age from 60 to 62,"  Booker Rising: news site for Black Moderates and Black Conservatives (Sept8,2k10).

Strikes in France, London foreshadow more protests," AP via Yahoo! News (Sept7,2k10)

Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.

On another recent public issue in France, see earlier rW2 post on Muslim worship blocking some streets in Paris:  "PoliticsFrance: Pisteutics:  Islam (ists?) flaunt French law, mass prayer in streets" refWr+t 2 (Sept5,2k10). See the video there, carried by CBN.

Canada: Insurance Industry: Life insurers want to expand, demand govt redo the pension system

Toronto's Globe and Mail carries a telltale lengthy article by Tara Perkins (updated Aug20,2k9). Here's a snippet:

The industry's drive comes amid a raging debate over the problems, exacerbated by the recession and tumultuous stock markets, with how Canadians save for retirement. Aging baby boomers and the slow extinction of defined benefit plans are among the factors that have left many without sufficient financial protection for their retirement.

Down the page we soon meet these proposals by the insurance corporations greedy for profits on our earnings and our employers' contributions to our future pensions.

The life insurance industry, which is responsible for about two-thirds of defined contribution plans in Canada, has also been talking to provincial and federal governments about “private sector solutions that we think will be as effective as any government-sponsored ones,” said Frank Swedlove, president of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association.

Again, as in the USA on the healthcare plans (as blogged yesterday and earlier on reWrite frontpage), the CLHIA led by Sun Life Financial is trying the binomial-logic charade h+l+ted in my blog-entries on the USA healthcare situation.

There are not two options (as "the industry" maintains) and there is no provision in either govt (feds and provinces) for faith-based and other not-for-profits to organize co-ops with memberships that set their own pension-insurance policies within the framework of laws that woud/shoud provide this option too, while these latter woud be constantly dialoguing with "the life insurance industry" and govt -- of course.

“Some of the proposals that have been made raise some concerns for us,” Mr. Swedlove said. “Some of these proposals relate to a government-sponsored defined contribution plan, and we don't think that that's the best way to go.

Where's the freedom of association, the provision for membership co-ops as insurers of life, healthcare, and pension-addons? This does not preclude a residual govt plan for those who refuse to buy life insurance or manage their pension income thru umbrelled-megacorporations or govt, but want responsible communal institutionalization of any pension reform so that their own plan fits into the pattern alongside and in competition with the insurance-profits greed-corporations and govt; in the proposed communal pension-unions each "plan" based on a given community's irreducible worldview, woud be included in the overall mosaic of pluralization.

“We think there are opportunities to increase pension activity for Canadians by changing some of the pension rules that exist in the country.”

Changing them to favour greed-corporations, that is. Don't be deceived by the innocuous words put out by the quoted industry spokesman.

And what of that already existing one-third of the industry not in the greed-corporations lobbying umbrella? Is the Lutheran communal Thrivent active in Canada too, and is it part of the life insurance forms welcomed and sustained? [Yes, a reader comments: "In Canada, the Lutheran-based insurance society is FaithLife Financial, headquartered in Waterloo,Ontario." Hat Tip to Anonymous; see Comments.] Also, the Lutheran Brotherhood? If they're here in the nearly-erased one-third of the life insurance industry, then at least some communal life-ensurers with memberships and voters woud not only exist already here in Canada (as I guess), but they woud be already equipped to supply infrastructure for taking on the new proposed pension providers, additional to the Canadian Pension Plan based on past contributions by my pay-ins thru my employers in earlier phases of my life. CPP is adjudged by many to be inadequate for many, and this criticism surely has some truth to it -- for those who can afford to buy pension-insurance addons for their retirements.

The greed-corporations that want to become major players in "pension insurance" to the exclusion of all communities of faith and other potential membership co-ops, these greed insurance corps in their present discourse have tried to erase, to cover up, what already exists and what coud come into existence if govt were truly even-handed.

-- Economix