France faces major disruption as workers threaten open-ended strikes

[cory777]

Source: Deutsche Wells

The French senate on Friday agreed to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, bringing the unpopular bill closer to becoming law. President Nicolas Sarkozy also wants to raise the age at which workers can retire with a full pension – to 67. The senate approved that part of the bill on Monday.

Transport workers plan to protest in the usual way: by taking to the streets. The transport network is likely to be severely disrupted on Tuesday. Street protests are also expected in a fresh wave on unrest over Sarkozy's plans.

Half the flights to and from Paris Orly airport, and one in three at Charles de Gaulle are likely to be cancelled because of walkouts by airport workers. On the railways, one in three high-speed TGV trains will be operating. The Paris metro is also likely to be severely hit.

Teachers, truckers and postal workers are planning to join the protests. Meanwhile, dock workers on strike in the oil port of Fos-Lavera forced a partial shutdown of a major refinery. They have been protesting for over two weeks.


Read more: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6104824,00.html

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Uncensored Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. This is how you get a better standard of living out of the robber barons

They can't live off the backs of labor if labor won't work for them.

[villager]

2. I guess workers aren't traduced into oppressing themselves, like they are here...

Look for this to get even more minimal coverage in the U.S. of A...

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Kick for the morning crowd!

Important example here...


:kick:

[47of74]

14. Exactly

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[Solly Mack]

4. k/r

[Luciferous]

6. K&R

[cowcommander]

7. I can't help but see this isn't helping France

Their economy isn't doing so well compared to Germany's.

[pattmarty]

8. Yeah, you're right. AND when they raise OUR SS to 70 you won't..........

........see any of our citizens doing stupid shit like this to possibly stop the government from raising the retirement age.:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Doctor_J]

22. What SS? They're going to give it to the same people who ran the

housing market.

[JackRiddler]

10. Really?

Is Germany the only example you can come up with of an economy doing "better than" France?

Then that's good news for the French.

Both of these countries have strong social welfare states and organized working classes willing to fight at least for their own rights and to defend the gains they've made.

Both of these countries are much better off economically and socially than the ones who have followed the neoliberal delusion.

[cowcommander]

11. They are raising the retirement age to 68 in Germany

I just don't see how the whole system is going to keep working if everyone retires early. Considering people are living longer now, the system can't possibly work if everyone expects to retire at 60 and just live off the state for the next 30 years.

[JackRiddler]

12. How is "the system" supposed to work if raising productivity means throwing people out of work?

Capitalism produces more than ever and can employ fewer people proportionate to population than ever. This is a defect in capitalism, in the for-profit private ownership of the productive forces. We will be forced to figure out how to deal with a system that perpetually can create more wealth with less labor. Everyone as a sink-or-swim economic unit is not the answer. Shorter working weeks and shorter working careers combined with a rational system of wealth distribution is, I would argue, preferable to making jobs ever scarcer and cutting out more and more of the young from the system (which goes together with longer work lives for the old).

[The2ndWheel]

13. Sounds like the same result either way

One you need fewer people to get the job done. The other you need less time to get the job done. They both result in the decreased necessity of any given person. The fewer people needed, the less time needed. The less time needed, the fewer people needed.

[JackRiddler]

15. That's an argument for equitable distribution...

if we can finally get enough people to understand that complex systems produce the wealth, not heroic entrepreneurs.

[The2ndWheel]

17. Then there is always the question of who's definition of wealth we use

One man's blah, blah, blah, is another man's etc, etc, etc.

You would be in agreement with Frederick W. Taylor then?

[JackRiddler]

24. Taylor?! Where would you get that idea?

Somewhere between Karl Marx and Bertrand Russell on the virtues of idleness, I would expect.

[The2ndWheel]

25. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant by complex systems

"if we can finally get enough people to understand that complex systems produce the wealth, not heroic entrepreneurs."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1911taylor.html

"In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in the saying that "Captains of industry are born, not made"; and the theory has been that if one could get the right man, methods could be safely left to him. In the future it will be, appreciated that our leaders must be trained right as well as born right, and that no great man can (with the old system of personal management) hope to compete with a number of ordinary men who have been properly organized so as efficiently to cooperate.

In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before."

It just sort of sounded comparable to that.

It's also interesting the way you mentioned that we need shorter weeks and careers, basically because we're not needed as much for the system to produce X, Y, and Z. We're not getting shorter weeks and careers because we want and are free to choose shorter weeks and careers, but because we're obsolete(more so than idle), for lack of a better term.

[maryf]

26. But there are so many young out of work...

retirement opens the doors for many...

[reggie the dog]

20. they strike in germany too

and have very high union participation in the country of marx


this strike is a good thing, fuck the govt, they actually used the argument that we should work longer because we are in better health and live longer.

[Doctor_J]

21. Thanks, cc. It's nice to get the Republican POV here

Don't strike!!! Cower in fear!!! Obey the billionaires and take their gracious gifts - after all, they're smarter than you, and look out for your well being better than you can!!! And without their billions, you wouldn't have a job at all!!!

[JackRiddler]

9. Correction: France Looks Forward to Continued Higher Standard of Living...

because workers there are organized and ready to defend what they have gained through past struggles.

[Blue_Tires]

16. +1

[reggie the dog]

18. over 4000 in the street in a town of 35000 where i live

retired people, public and private sector workes, i went with a friend and his wife and kids, the high school and jr high school aged daughters were on the front lines while their 6 yr old was with us in the middle! plus 2 of his friends participated, who are welsh and dont live here, but are retired and live in greece half of the year and have been practicing on demonstrating.

[suffragette]

28. Always appreciate seeing your perspective

from France itself.
Good to hear that all ages have been participating.

[reggie the dog]

19. 12 rafineries are set to close tomorrow

due to the ports blocking oil tankes and other ships, i filled up today and am going to stock up on groceries tomorrow, couldnt today as the grocery store workes were on strike

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. They're in siesta mode; not going full-bore yet. Only 3.5 million demonstrating, France-wide.

Wait till they get impatient.

[eilen]

27. We should be doing this shit. They have it going on. nt

[Overseas]

29. K&R! //nt

[pampango]

30. BBC: "French pension strikes go into second day"

French strikers are disrupting services for a second day running, as they seek to build pressure on the government over its pension reform plans. Tuesday saw the biggest strikes and demonstrations so far in the campaign, and several unions say they will continue their stoppages indefinitely.

And strikers forced the closure of all six of the Total oil group's refineries in France, threatening fuel shortages. Eleven out of the 12 refineries in France have now been affected by strike action - although a Total spokesman said the company had enough fuel in its depots to continue supplying France's filling stations.

The general strike on Tuesday - the third this month - saw more than a million people take to the streets. Unions put the national turnout at 3.5m, while police said 1.2m people were involved.

The unions are opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and to delay a full state pension from 65 to 67.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11532278