French workers step up protests as gas supplies run dry

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

By Angela Dewan

Burning tires, tear gas and clashes with riot police -- the ugly scenes that come with workers' strikes are all too familiar in France, a country constantly trying to balance its culture of workers' rights with a more efficient economy.

Such scenes are being played out across the country Friday as unions have called for workers to step up protests that have for the past week crippled parts of France. Employees of oil refineries, nuclear power plants and some public transportation have left one in three gas stations dry, forcing vehicles to search for well-stocked stations and causing long lines at the pump.

People are now hoarding gas, worried that it may be some time until supply levels are back to normal.

The workers are protesting a labor reform bill put forward by the government that will make it easier for companies to hire and fire employees. The government's argument is that the strict laws that make French workers among the best protected in the world leave companies in a difficult position where they can't take on new staff.

FULL story and video at link.


A riot police officer uses pepper spray on protestors in Marseille, France, at a rally against government's proposed labor law reforms, on May 25.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/world/france-strike-fuel-protest/index.html

[yeoman6987]

1. I wish everyone would stop burning tires

Talk about destroying the environment. There are plenty of ways to protest. Burning tires should not be one.

[fasttense]

2. This is how they force people to work like slaves.

They pass laws whittling away any rights you might have, then they start paying you less and less and less to do more and more and more. Little by little, in incremental steps they take away any control you have over your life. Necessitous men are NOT free men. This is how corporations rake in the money for the uber rich while destroying the remains of the middle class.

We should all be out in the streets protesting. Right now you have both parties pushing for less protection for workers and more abuse of protesters and whistle blowers.

[FBaggins]

4. That isn't what is happening at all

The real conflict here is powerful unions made up of people who are already employed - fighting against the unemployed. In France - they're still suffering under double-digit unemployment rates while comparable rates in Germany and the U.K. are roughly half as high.

A progressive government (and that's certainly what France has) wants to look out for the interests of workers and help the unemployed to become workers. The current structure makes it hard for companies to lay people off (good)... but also encourages them to not expand their workforce. You can't make a significant dent in unemployment rates unless you get companies to expand their staffing.

[christx30]

5. Put another way:

Why would a company hire someone if they knew it would take nearly an act of God to get rid of an employee that didn't work out.
Best just to keep a few trusted employees, if they are taking care of everything you need done. Anyone that's currently unemployed isn't your problem.

[political marxist]

6. Nonsense

The antidote to high unemployment in France is to shorten the workweek further and expropriate the owners of recalcitrant companies. Let the workers run the plants and industries for their benefit and society in general. That's the ideal and it may be coming sooner than you think to a country near you.

[christx30]

8. Because that's working out SO WELL in Venezuela.

[sulphurdunn]

17. Venezuela is nothing like France.

Your statement posits a false analogy.

[political marxist]

21. Venezuela

had indeed begun the process of socializing enterprises and democratizing the economy, but those efforts- which began shortly after the election of Hugo Chavez -were met with strong opposition from the business class and media disinformation campaigns. In addition, structural difficulties arose in the form of capital flight and the closing of factories and production sites, with the result of greatly reducing the formal economy and scattering workers throughout informal employment sectors. Conflict with capital and a disorganized workforce has militated against effective worker ownership by forcing the government to rein in their efforts, and concentrate instead on state control of important industries, leading to uneven dispersal of worker control and a weakened position in the overall economy, creating something more like social-democracy than socialism. The U.S. has had no small role in fostering this state of affairs, with it's strong support for Venezuela's capitalist class and declared hostility to anything other than it's neoliberal world view. Chavismo has done a great deal for the country, but it suffers from relying on a charismatic form of rule, rather than empowering the working class to seize ownership of production and governing cooperatively. You should research more thoroughly before commenting.

[trudyco]

10. The Gardener Supply company model?

Get away from stock driven companies (and the myopic decisions that entails) with overpaid management and more towards an employee owned company?

[socialist_n_TN]

13. Agreed.......nfm.....

nm

[trudyco]

7. then maybe have a six month trial

It sounds like the companies want a way to exploit new workers, and the old ones.

[beardown]

9. A series of measures to remove workers' rights

Of course you can hire more people if you can reduce the number of benefits and wages that you pay them. McDonald's appreciates your approval of their business model.

French labor has figured out that allowing a 30 year string of anti-worker measures (thanks Reagan) no matter how incremental they may seem will always wind up with creating a corporate feudalism situation.

And how does changing the regs to force employees to work many more hours, albeit with a 3 month average closer to the current 35 hours, encourage a company to hire more workers?

I'm more concerned about the worldwide race to the bottom than I am one nation's labor fighting to prevent the slide.

[FBaggins]

11. The length of the work week isn't the proposal that I was talking about

More relevant to this part of the conversation is the proposal to allow companies to lay off workers if they suffer four consecutive quarters of declining profits. Currently, the company has to actually get to the point that they're losing money before they can shrink their workforce.

[socialist_n_TN]

12. I notice you said declining profits.....

So that means they still are making profits then huh?

If they don't like it, the bosses and their "private property", otherwise known as the means of production, can be expropriated and run by the workers themselves for the benefit of society at large and the workers themselves.

[DonCoquixote]

15. worker run companies sound good, but

it sounds here like a case of "we got ours, so fuck the younger workers." If someone knows that they can use a union to exclude others, what is the remedy?

[FBaggins]

16. So you're proposing cutting employee salaries so that more people can be hired?

After all, they're still making some money, right?

[socialist_n_TN]

19. If the bosses are making money, then that's surplus value that.........

can be expropriated and spread out so that more people can be hired. Who said anything about cutting salaries? Cut hours and employ more people, but keep the pay the same.

[Hoppy]

3. Note to the cheese eating surrender monkeys---keep on fighting!

[socialist_n_TN]

14. Vive la France...........

At least the workers of France.

[sulphurdunn]

18. Huh?

"...France, a country constantly trying to balance its culture of workers' rights with a more efficient economy."

Interesting how workers rights are assumed to be incompatible with an efficient economy right out of the gate.

[socialist_n_TN]

20. That's the neo-liberal way..............

And by the rules of capitalism they're correct. As one of the apologists stated above, it's not about making profit, it's about making ENOUGH profit. Which is why we need to get rid of the whole damn system.