French workers rebel

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Tim Costello: Workers reject President Nicolas Sarkozy's attempt to rollback five decades of gains

Friday November 16th, 2007

Tim Costello is director of the Global Labor Strategies, a resource center based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., whose objective is helping build a worldwide labor movement. Formerly a truck driver and union organizer, Costello is also co-author of several books, including Globalization from Below: The Power of Solidarity.

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[colibri1]

I hope Sarkozy fails. It's not about cost-cutting; it's about destroying the social function of government. If he's like other right-wing politicos (Reagan, Bush, Pinochet, for instance), he'll shovel the money taken from social programs into prisons, cops, the military, and the already-wealthy, while still claiming he's doing it in the name of cost-cutting or "balancing the budget" or some such rot. If only the US had the same sort of engaged populace France has.

[saintfletcher]

Its happening all over the world. All our rights and profits workers gained are being diminished. Soon there will be no "third world". There will just be the super rich and the wretched poor. That is what globalists want. It is really a Trojan horse for developing countries and small business in the developed world.

[anima13]

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[Pegcin01]

Sarko le Dictateur !

[JohnNoZ35]

Wow! Someone is actually covering the labor perspective.

[ttandizzle112]

he was saying that unions need to become global. Did you not hear the entire point of the story, in this new era corporations are global and unions need to be too if they want to fight it...

[CamaradeMCplouf]

no, they manifest because the new mode of discretionnary public retribution Universities should be getting with the new reform. I'm a student, I know about it. There's no talking of 50 years of work ! 40 is already enough.

[Utroll]

But the point is that it's always in the same direction, loss of social advantage for example they could have done an average of social advantage between each differents status and put that in place. Students manifest coz they know that they will have to work 50 years for them

[CamaradeMCplouf]

The universities problem, however important it is, has nothing to do with this reform. the students don't speak up for it, but for a completely different matter.

And I don't see why they showing others people protesting in the end : what's the link ???

This was really a bit blurry for an information network...

[CamaradeMCplouf]

But what you call the "rebel worker" has nothing to do with it. In french administration, public workers had up to now a special treatment that allowed them to retire with a pension at 50 no matter what; while all the other 95% of the population had to work 40 years full, which is an average of 5 years more.

The reform is only about setting every body to 40 full years of work.

And as the guy say, about 70% of the French are pro-reform in this case.

[CamaradeMCplouf]

As a french, i must clarify a few things :

I think France has a deep socialist background and history, and is very attached to it. That's why people WANT - and i agree - to keep what their fathers and grandfathers earned in a century struggle. That's why students are in the streets, and i truly think they are right to do it.

[Cheepn1s]

theyre not falling into fascism like the US :)

way to go France