When French workers get pissed, they shut the country down.....

[marmar]

from the BBC:


Strike disrupts French transport

Workers in France have begun a strike which has severely disrupted the country's transport system, especially the railway network.

The 24-hour strike began on Wednesday at 2000 local time (1800 GMT).

Trade unions called the strike in protest against the reform of special pension schemes enjoyed by a minority of state sector workers.

In the past, transport strikes have caused massive disruption and put pressure on political leaders.

Soon after the strike started the national railway company SNCF reported many cancellations of its high-speed TGV trains, out of which only about 7% are expected to be in normal service.

Eurostar cross-channel trains will also be affected, but SNCF said only five trains would be suspended between Paris and London.

Transport links in the Paris region are also severely disrupted, with the public transport company RATP reporting very little traffic on the metro lines, virtually no traffic on the regional trains and only 15% of buses and trams in normal service.

The strike is scheduled to last 24 hours, but some unions have called for strikes to be extended to Friday or even Saturday.

An extension of the strike could hit spectators heading for the final matches of the Rugby World Cup, held at the Stade de France stadium in a northern suburb of Paris. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7049102.stm

[babylonsister]

1. A lot smaller country, but point taken. nt

[reggie the dog]

13. we still

have over 60 million people living here.

[liberaldemocrat7]

65. We can shut some GOP contributors down by not buying from them after we call them.

Get as many people to make these phone calls.

Call GOP contributor and war contractor General Electric Corporation at 203 373 2211 and ask for the public relations department. Tell the person in public relations that you want the GE CEO to get Bush to end the war in Iraq and then Bush resign with Cheney and until that happens you will not buy any GE products and that you will tell your friends about this.

Call GOP contributor Rite Aid at 1-800-325-3737 and tell the person to get the CEO to get the GOP to enact HR 676 Single payer health care and repeal Medicare Part D and place the drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80% of drugs with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no means tests, no coverage gaps, and remove the means test for Medicare Part B and until that happens, you won't buy ANYTHING from Rite Aid.

Call GOP contributor Wendy's restaurants at 614 764-3553 and Tell the person in public relations that you want their CEO to get the GOP to help enact a $10/HR MIN. WAGE into law and until this happens you will not go to a Wendy's Restaurant.




After you call these companies please send email to [e-mail] with the subject CALLED.

[Hieronymus]

2. Good for them .. consequently, they have a better quality of life than we do

[marmar]

5. Absolutely. They savor life.....

They realize that you work to live, not vice versa.

[Hieronymus]

10. J'aime la France.

[Selatius]

57. I saw that in a text book once, comparisons between "working to live" and "living to work"

In America, the attitude is closer to living to work. As a result, society is organized more around the workplace than around the home.

[reggie the dog]

60. here in France

society is organized around the dinner table.

[reggie the dog]

14. voila

vous avez tout comprit.

[Bassic]

53. J'aimerais bien,

que toute l'Amérique du Nord en fasse de même.

[reggie the dog]

58. toute le monde

Pourquoi arrêtez avec l'Europe et l'Amérique du Nord? Il nous faut des grevés partout dans le monde.

ps Habitez-vous peut être au Québec ou au Nouveau Brunswick? Ça ne fait que quatre ans que j'habite en France. Avant j'ai habité en Illinois aux États Unis.

[Bassic]

68. Je suis Québécois et une partie de ma famille

est Franco-Ontarienne.

Vous semblez bien maîtriser la langue de Molière, ce qui n'est peut-être pas surprenant vu le pays que vous habitez. Tout de même, cela est digne de félicitations. :thumbsup: :)

[Ellen Forradalom]

69. Hé bien les gars

Vous voulez bien passer par le Groupe Francophone de temps en temps? Je veux y redémarrer la discussion, il y a pas grandchose qui se passe là-bas.

[Bassic]

70. Avec plaisir.

Je me disais justement qu'il serait bien d'y voir un peu d'activité.

[Ellen Forradalom]

71. Merci monsieur

faut vraiment que je m'exprime en francais plus souvent.

[Bassic]

72. Vous semblez vous débrouiller à merveille.

:)

[Selatius]

55. Yeah, that's because they fought for it through protests and through the ballot box.

And they fought for publicly funded elections a long time ago. Most of the things you see lobbyists do here are illegal in France as well as in most member states of the EU, for that matter.

[reggie the dog]

56. when I explain election funding in the USA

People here say "what, bribes are still legal in the USA?"

[Selatius]

59. Well, Americans can't or won't get organized to fight. Consequently, they get nothing.

It appears the only truth of the matter is that the people who hold power only understand force, and when citizens organize, they can invoke a huge amount of force that the industrialists and leaders simply cannot ignore. These things in France like single-payer health care and public universities with high standards and no tuition and advanced transit--they only obtained them by forcing the government to make it a priority and by forcing their employers to give concessions.

[reggie the dog]

61. wrong

You are more unionized in the USA than we are here in France. No BS a higher percentage of US workers are in labour unions than in France. You just THINK you cannot do anything. You can. Strikes by office cleaners in LA, strikes by auto workers, strikes in garages with union mechanics in the suburbs of Chicago (small shop where my dad is the union rep). Strikes all won by labor.

We have university tuition here. Poor people pay 4 euros per year, the average tuition is 400 euros. People in the wealthiest classes pay 3000 euros, but to them it is not so much.

[Selatius]

66. Looking up the numbers, you're actually right.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lab_tra_uni_mem-labor-trade-union-membership

The US and France are ranked 17th and 18th in terms of unionization at 13% and 9%. The point remains that in the US, labor protections are often weaker, and where I live, there is a strong anti-union sentiment, which is strange to me but common in the conservative countryside of America. Here in the poorest states of America, tuition at public university can be 3,000+ dollars a semester for tuition and room/board, and that's here where I live in Mississippi, the poorest state of the Union. If you go to universities in the city, tuition is in the tens of thousands of dollars. I'd rather pay 400 than 3000.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

73. Of course, bribes are still legal

It's called "protected speech." :sarcasm:

And only the rich can afford to "speak" these days.

[Amonester]

3. Pretty solidaire ensemble, n'est-ce pas?

I wish the 66% who think the US is heading in the wrong direction would do the same if only to stop the sociopathic chimp from starting WW3...

[marmar]

4. D'accord.....

:thumbsup:

[alittlelark]

6. In France the Gov't is afraid of the people

Here we are afraid of our gov't


F'ed up...

[mark414]

7. and when workers try to do it here, they're attacked by whiny ungrateful americans

[Virginia Dare]

23. Another inconvenient truth...

I wonder when the last time most of the complainers actually walked a picket line, or donated to a strike fund was.

[reggie the dog]

36. very recently

there were 2 auto workers strikes (successful strikes too at that) in the USA. I was one of few people here to even talk about them. It seemed that the threads about strikes and unions went nowhere. (hello, base to party are you out there??? the Democrats do still represent working people right?????)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. And the sad thing is that many of the people who could most USE a union

have been brainwashed against them.

The grocery workers went on strike in Portland in the mid 1990s, protesting a decision by Fred Meyer, a formerly local corporation bought by out-of-town investors, to give formerly full-time employees "flexible" schedules against their wills. The result was a loss of benefits in some cases.

At the time, I was living in the Hawthorne District, which as any Portlander knows, is a lefty, New Age neighborhood bordering on working class areas.

Most local residents appeared to honor the picket line and bring the strikers food and beverages, but the working class people in junker cars walked right through the picket line without a sideways glance, and many worked as scabs (for wages higher than were paid to regular employees).

I heard that the right wing radio jocks were preaching that the Fred Meyer workers were "spoiled," and that they already had it better than the average worker.

So instead of being told to ask, "Why can't I have wages and benefits as good as the ones that Fred Meyer workers used to have?" radio listeners were being told to ask, "Why should the Fred Meyer workers have better wages and benefits than I have?"

I've seen that tactic used again and again, frequently against state and federal employees.

[reggie the dog]

44. unfortunately that tactic

is international

[Stargazer99]

8. Americans could take some lessons from the French

[SnoopDog]

9. Let the teachings begin - just do it - do nothing on Nov 6

If nothing else, if you do nothing, you will have made a difference..

[jmatthan]

11. And you have your chance now

I heard that on November 6th thousands of truckers are going to stop their trucks.

Mike Malloy is also NOT going to broadcast on the 6th.

Mike is asking all his listeners to stop doing anything on November 6th as a protest, just like in France.

Are you rally committed to doing something to bring down Bush and his cronies and also getting your representatives in the House and the Senate to understand the power of the people.

Then, you too NOW have your chance on 6th November!

[reggie the dog]

15. right on

general strike 6 November in the USA.

Fuck the system

call in sick

make your boss pay you for the strike day

[bdamomma]

30. and let them call those who do participate unpatriotic

just tell them to go to hell.

[redacted]

47. I WOULD RATHER BE CALLED "UNPATRIOTIC" THAN BE A GOOD GERMAN

[bdamomma]

67. definitely.

they can shove their slogans up their a$$e$

[reggie the dog]

12. Rail, Gas, Electricity, Teachers

It is a government worker strike. I participated and demonstrated in the streets this morning. The train stations are shut down between here and Marseille. Only 2 trains did the Marseille, Lyon, Paris route today (normally there are dozens). The metro is Paris is basically shut. The electric/gas company (still nationalized, well 2 thirds nationalized anyways) are on strike as are teachers. The country is shut, people can not move between the cities in train. Many folks said fuck going to work today. I also taught, and will teach this afternoon, but I changed my lessons and taught about the benefits of the welfare state in my English classes today.
Fuck Sarkozy
Fuck the neocons
Fuck making us work longer before we retire
and Fuck privitizations.

tous ensemble tous ensemble oui oui

I proudly carried a red flag in the demonstration today for a popular education group called ATTAC that I am a part of.

(red being the leftist color over here).

[Didereaux]

16. ...but the French worker does not suffer the dibilitating...

...disease of osteoporosis of the spine. The 'blue collars' of today are mere shadows of their fathers. They whimper when the company out-sources to some foreign labor source, they whine when they are underbid by illegals, and they shiver in the middle of the night when they dream the word muslim.

...in short the American 'blue collar' worker is a mirror of America. Time to start adding calcium to the water supplies.

[Perry Logan]

17. When Americans get upset, they come to DU and badmouth the front-runner.

Different strokes for different folks, huh?

[Sneaky Sailor]

18. Yes and nothing gets done

Notice thier lackluster economy and lack of growth. I am clearly not against workers rights, but the French will strike if the employers sneeze at them.

[Wednesdays]

19. You apparently skipped response #2

nt

[marmar]

20. Complete and total B.S. The average French worker is much more productive....

than the average American worker..... And notice OUR debt-ridden, housing-bust lackluster economy.

[Sneaky Sailor]

22. I would hope they are more productive.

they only work 35 hours a week and get a minimum of 5 weeks off a year.

[reggie the dog]

38. study after study

conducted by the EU, French and American governments have demonstrated that French workers are more productive in 44 (our average is 8 weeks vacation here) 35 hour long weeks than American workers are in 50 40 hour long weeks. Happy, well fed, well looked after workers who enjoy national health insurance as a birthright, state pensions that actually pay for your retirement, a minimum wage equal to 12.25 US dollars (12 Canadian dollars), affordable public gas and electric supplies, and a work to live lifestyle are more productive at work.

In August many shops close because the owners take the month off to go on holiday. Most folks here run their lives, their job does not.

[LSK]

40. tell me something, how many American workers are actually working 40 hours?

And not taking a break, smoking a cig, shopping online, calling the doctor or whatever else because they have no time because they are stuck at fucking work all day?

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Nope. Not quite.

It was the case 4 years ago, but not any more....

GENEVA (AP) -- American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.
They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.

The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work -- a second key measure of productivity.

Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070902/un_labor_productivity.html?.v=6

[reggie the dog]

42. you speak only of wealth production

what about all of our social service related jobs that are their to provide a service, not wealth???? You can be very productive in France without creating wealth. All health insurance, for example is not their to create wealth but to provide service. Also this is a quote from the article you cited "America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment." so ok you beat is in foreign investment which adds to your GDP. So all the "wealth" added to your GDP in Iraq and Afganistan, and any other country your companies are in is counted. We have less foreign investment than you and less return off of it but I venture to think that you still get more productivity out of an hour of work from a French person than from an American. We also have more jobs that produce no wealth (SOCIAL SERVICES) than you do in the USA.

[LSK]

45. thats a bogus number because its only based on the GDP

And the GDP is inflated in the US because of enormous and inflated healthcare costs.

[reggie the dog]

46. health care

makes less money here in France because of price control and the entire health insurance scheme is made to provide a service, not make a profit. Hell our retirement funds are still not being invested in markets. I pay for the people retired today. No one plays with this money, invests it, takes a profit, and then gives me whatever trickles down. Not good for the GDP but not bad for the people.

[LSK]

48. did you see the movie Sicko?

If so, how accurate is he in depicting France in that movie?

I'd love to know more about your healthcare system, your tax rates, your economy.

Thanks.

[reggie the dog]

50. I missed the movie

because I did not want to see it in French. I am just waiting for the DVD to come out so I can see it in English. Out of a combined income of 42000 Euros per year for a family of 2 (last years taxes) we pay roughly 10 000 Euros in taxes on income and our payments to the retirement, health insurance, and unemployment funds (you get 80 percent of your wage in unemployment for a time equal to how long you worked then you are eligible for public aid with no time limit but it is less per month). We have a relatively high sales tax of 19.6 percent on anything paid for (I do not know about things like stocks and bonds). Small and mid sized business is still more important here than in the USA. Most people understand that work is not the most important thing in life but Sarkozy is trying to change that (the bastard already cut income taxes/fees from 60% of yearly income down to 50% of yearly income for the wealthiest classes). Workers have more rights here, it is harder to fire people or to do layoffs because companies have penalties to pay for doing such things.

I am proud to pay my taxes to help those in need. I am also an American by birth and I cannot imagine moving back to the USA. Luckily for me the woman I fell in love with and married happened to be French and works as a teacher (she like all full time workers for the state over here, has a life long job guarantee.)

When you go to the doctor over here you pay 21 euros and are refunded 20 by the state. You are also refunded roughly 90 percent of the cost of prescription drugs up to a certain limit then it is 100 percent. Only the health insurance is public. Doctors still work for themselves. Hospitals are public though, and great quality for the most part. Like in the USA for regular checkups and cleanings of teeth you need to take an appointment a few months ahead of time but for emergencies you rarely wait a long. Surgery does not entail long waits either.

[LSK]

52. thank you, you should make that a post in itself

And not buried here. We here are starving for details such as that.

[reggie the dog]

21. growth at what cost

any economic growth you are having in the USA involves blowing up Iraq to make money.

[never cry wolf]

24. An interesting article about a national strike in Denmark

http://www.american-pictures.com/english/racism/articles/welfare.htm

This was posted years ago here but it truly explains pretty well what the europeans have in the way of quality of life and how they get it.

[defendandprotect]

31. America wasn't doing that badly on vacations until after 1963 . . .

I certainly had 3 weeks +++ vacation and was qualifying for four --

Except that in America, you were encouraged more to break up your time ---

In France, everyone closes down in August --

[Lars39]

32. Thanks for posting that !

I've been searching for that in my bookmarks for a while now. :blush:

[never cry wolf]

35. You are quite welcome

It is the best explanation I've ever seen on how they do things, and it makes so much sense... I want to emigrate!!!

[Evoman]

25. Is growth in and of itself good?

Isn't the economy supposed to work for the people, not vice versa?

If a majority of a countries people are getting their needs met, are happy, and live a good life....then what is the problem?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. Yeah, the thousands of Peugeots, Citroens, and Renaults I see on the streets of Brazil...

...must be a figment of my imagination.

That, and the two consecutive Formula One titles taken by Renault.

[Ignis]

34. The good life is not wage slavery.

"I am clearly not against workers rights..."

Given your posts in this thread, that's not clear at all to me.

[LSK]

39. LIAR OR IGNORANT?

WHICH IS IT?

Hows that Euro doing?

:grr:

[reggie the dog]

51. last I saw

ahem, one of the Dollars I used to earn in the USA is now worth .69 of the Euros I now earn. I US dollar equals .97 Canadian dollars. I told my family in the USA to buy Canadian dollars with their savings accounts but they think I am crazy. The government is trying to do to the USA what has already been done in Argentina.

[backscatter712]

26. That's what we have to do.

Striking isn't about just holding up signs, marching around and making noise.

It's about disruption.

It's economic warfare.

You bring the infrastructure to a halt. You bring production and distribution to a halt. Most of all, you bring the flow of money to a halt.

See those rich assholes taking money out of our pockets, then smirking at us and telling us to get back on the oars?

Make his wallet bleed.

Only when you make the fuckers bleed are you able to force them to cry uncle.

This general strike is but a first step. To really make the fuckers bleed, we have to have significant disruptions and work stoppages that last for weeks. A one day strike is useless. A month-long strike with factories idle, highways and railways gridlocked and everything ground to a halt is what will shake the world.

Until enough people figure this out, our existence will continue to be an eternal boot on a human face.

[reggie the dog]

54. yessssss

"A month-long strike with factories idle, highways and railways gridlocked and everything ground to a halt is what will shake the world."

That is exactly how the high school and university student led strike agianst the reform of the work code, which would have taken rights away from workers, was a success. They shut france down for 6 weeks in the spring of 2006. Blocked train track, and expressways in over 60 cities in the country for multiple days. Imagine a 4 hour commute to work instead of 20 minutes. After a couple of days folks stay home. I was so proud of the students I had at the university at that time that I joined their strike and blocked traffic with them. One day 3 million of us were in the street in a country with a population of 60 million. Never Seen Before was one newspaper headline. WE WON THAT ONE, I struck today, the trains will supposedly strike tomorrow.

Fuck the man, the workers have the numbers.

[JitterbugPerfume]

27. this is why they are portrayed as surrender monkeys

and worse by the American press , and government.

We can't have the American worker getting socialist ideas , now can we?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. Not to mention that the Left Behind books portray

the head of the European Union as the anti-Christ.

We can't have the masses going to Europe and seeing that it's not bombed out ruins anymore.

[bdamomma]

29. they make their government afraid of them, us on the other hand well.

[Nutmegger]

37. I stand with them.

Sadly, Sarko won't back down like Chirac. I fear they will not be successful.

[reggie the dog]

62. Sarko

Fuck Sarko, once the strikes cost the rich bastards that helped put him in power enough money they will pressure him. Also there is a very real risk of a general strike because the people that strike, well, generally hate Sarkozy.

[Ellen Forradalom]

49. My friends in France think it's getting a little out of hand

Going on strike has become a knee-jerk reaction. The unions strike first and negotiate later. In addition, the transport strikes affect a good 15 million people in the Ile-de-France region. There needs to be a change in how social conflict is handled.

[reggie the dog]

63. no no no

The government changes our work contracts and our retirements without negotiations. Then we strike. If transport strikes affect 19 million people then great. That is the idea. You need to remind your friends why they have a 35 hour work week and at least 5 weeks paid holiday per year.

[Xenotime]

64. Power to the people