A French Lesson

(Third in a series)

French students and unions are set to square off against the French government in a “day of action” tomorrow. “We have not yet reached the peak of the protest movement,” Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT said on Saturday, “This Tuesday could be a turning point. The only solution is the withdrawal of the CPE. We can achieve this.” 

Why the passion over this issue? That can be hard to understand if you have not been following what’s been happening in France and Europe over the past few years or are unfamiliar with the French industrial relations system.

Those of us of a certain age remember a slogan from 1968: the issue is not the issue—which is to say that the specific issue is actually part of a broader problem. In this case, the new law is simply the latest in a series of trends and events—indeed, the very drift of globalization—that worries the French as it does most people in the industrialized world.

In the name of global competition corporations and their political allies across Europe have abandoned the European Social Model and have demanded cut backs social benefits and changes in labor law.

In addition, outsourcing—“de-localization” as it is called in Europe—has hit some labor markets hard, just as it has in the US. French-based companies are moving jobs to the new states of the EU and beyond to South Asia and China raising serious questions in the minds of many about what to do to protect jobs, wages, working conditions, and the social welfare system they have built up over the years. The rejection of the European constitution by French voters last May was a striking indication of this unease.

For US observers, the dispute over the new law puts a spotlight on the differences between the French and US industrial relations systems and trade union structures.

In France, and in much of Europe, workers, unions, and their political allies insisted that basic worker rights and basic social benefits—such as just cause for discharge and vacations and heath insurance—be written into law rather than into collective bargaining agreements. This insured that all workers, whether they belong to a union or not, could enjoy these rights and benefits. In contrast, most workers in the US are “employees at will”.  That means that unless you are part of a narrowly prescribed group of protected workers fired because of race, gender, or age—and you can prove it—or unless you have either an individual contract or a union contract, you can be fired for “good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all.”  Similarly, benefits like vacations, sick leave, and health insurance are tied to a person’s job in the US and not a matter of right.

Unlike the Europeans, the US labor movement generally saw winning just cause rights and other benefits through collective bargaining as a way to recruit new members, and therefore often did not push to push to have them written into law. For brief few decades—when union membership was high—this strategy was able to win protections and benefits for union members, and even some non-members, but it left many out in the cold. As union membership fell the short-sightedness of the approach became evident.

The French dispute also highlights the difference in trade union strategy and structure. French unions are making a very credible threat to call a general strike—and yet union density in France is actually below that of the US. The threat is credible because unions operate within an industrial relations system that includes—by law—elected worker representation at the workplace. This allows unions to be elected to represent workers who are not actually members of the union. Because of this, unions are often able to mobilize workers—members and non-members, alike—around critical issues such as the changes in labor law.

Given the condition of global labor and the relentless attacks on worker rights and standards, you would think that US unions and US labor official would have some comment on such important events. After all here is a potentially successful revolt against the attempt by big business and its political allies to impose a US labor market model on France, to undermine hard won labor standards, to divide young and old, immigrant and native born, and those those in permanent jobs from those in precarious jobs.  And yet I have not seen any comments from US labor leaders in the press on the events. The sad truth is that US labor leaders too rarely speak out on the connections between US workers and those in the rest of the world, other than on trade issues that have an immediate impact on their memberships. If they were more engaged in substantive discussions and action on global issues, perhaps some reporters would have thought to ask them what they thought.

The resistance of the French workers and students to the attack on their hard won rights is a bit of spring sunshine at a bleak moment for the world’s labor movements. People all over the world face similar challenges posed by globalization. But it also points up the difficulties in fashioning a global labor movement: labor movements exist in all countries but they were organized within the legal, political, and cultural frameworks of individual nation-states. As a result it will take effort and creativity to build a global labor movement that can resist corporate led globalization.

But for now let’s hear it for the people the US Right calls the cheese eating surrender monkeys!! They are giving the world a good French lesson.

(More in this series as events unfold.)

M.O.

Comments

[Nick]

Thanks for the excellent analysis.
I was fortunate enough to be present at the march yesterday (March 28). What can I say. Holy cow. Say what you want about the French, they know how to put together a demonstration: no boring speeches, just throngs, hordes, masses of people (probably over 500,000 in Paris), organized into groups, blaring music, jumping up and down, and generally putting the fun back in fightback.
Despite what can be read in the International Herald Tribune or seen on CNN, this movement is actually an inspiring union of very disparate groups coming together out of solidarity and a notion that things don't have to be the way the governement and the employers insist they have to be. Public sector union workers who benefit from the "generous" social benefits and labor protections the French won from a century of struggle marched alongside the unemployed, who dare to hope for more than a throw-away job. Students from elite high-schools and universities rollicked side by side with working-class kids from the suburbs and vocational-tech schools. While a few bands of louts were roving around playing hide-and-go-seek with the union marshalls and undercover police, for the most part the march was harmonious and good-spirited.
You may be right to point out that US labor leaders have been a little quiet about this French situation: maybe the feeling is they don't need to be associated with a country that is not terribly popular with many Americans. However, for what it's worth, a guest from the French union CGT at the recent Change to Win organizing convention got a rousing ovation from the leaders of the new federation.
Keep up the good work.

[Dan Harris]

But won't these actions by the workers simply drive more French companies to outsource their manufacturing to China and other lower wage and less regulated countries?