short essay
Module 6
Section 3: The Economy, Employment, and Trade Unions
Overview
In this Section we will explore the role of protest and unions in French public life. We will also think about the ways in which labor practices and the economy have shaped each other over the past 70 years.
Key terms and concepts: Protest and strikes, Les trente Glorieuses, French unions, dirigisme
Table of Contents:
· Chapter 17: The Choreography of Protest (Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 233-245)
· Les Trente Glorieuses (1945-1975) and the Economic Transformation of France
· The French Economy in the 21st Century
· Employment
· Unions (Les Syndicats)
Objectives for this section:
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After completing the following readings, see if you are able to do these things: |
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· Identify Jean Monnet and describe his role in the restructuring of the French economy after World War II. · What is dirigisme? How did it enable de Gaulle to revitalize the economy and modernize French society? · What happened in the 1970s that brought an end to the expansive period known as Les Trente Glorieuses (the Thirty-Year Economic Miracle from 1945-1975)? · What major challenge does France face in the next decade with regard to energy production? · How is globalization changing the way France does business? · How are French labor unions different from US labor unions? |
Study questions: (Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 233-245)
· Why are protests a regular feature of public life in France?
· Why are the Parisians so tolerant of strikes?
· Why is union membership low in France?
· Cite two differences between labor unions in France and in the US.
· What might explain the disrespectful attitude French people commonly exhibit towards the law?
In Chapter 17, N-B examine the French practice of taking to the streets in organized protest, which can take the form of a strike, public demonstration, or a parade. A regular feature of public life in France, these forms of giving expression to dissent through sign-carrying, often theatrical marches, are usually registered with the police and therefore carried out by permit. In a highly centralized country like France, Paris is the most common venue, and Parisians are generally tolerant and sympathetic with protesters, even in the case of strikes that paralyze the city. N-B point out that despite their reputation for frequent strikes, the French lose 11 times fewer days of work due to strikes than American workers. This is probably due to the fact that only 9% of French workers belong to unions since joint-management assures the same benefits for non-union as well as union members and the unions don't have the money to pay for long strikes. N-B look at the historical roots of protest, which go back to the Middle Ages when castles were surrounded by moats. They cite the huge moat on the east side of the Louvre Palace as an example of measures taken by the king to protect himself from his own people (p. 235). They also look at the way in which unions function in France, particularly with regard to the joint-management practices that involve power brokering with the ministries. This situation precipitates competition among the unions to win political advantage for their constituents, as in the case of the two opposing farmers' unions, the left-wing Confédération Paysanne (José Bové's organization) which opposes subsidies to promote large-scale farming and is against Frankenfood (genetically-engineered food products) and the right-wing Fédération Nationale des Sociétés et Exploitants Agricoles, which is more in line with the subsidy programs and more open to the European Union.
In the last part of the chapter, N-B discuss the David-and-Goliath attitude commonly found among French people when it comes to obeying the law. As N-B summarize: "The basic French man or woman doesn't consider the law an absolute, but a set of general principles that can be ignored if principles justify it." (p. 243). According to N-B, this attitude permeates the politics, literature, and is part of the core value system. It is in fact a predictable consequence of the highly centralized State that is France: " Open defiance of the law and disrespect towards its enforcers is what happens in an extremely centralized country where citizens enjoy little real political liberty. And the State puts up with it because such behavior is a recognized check in a heavily centralized democracy" (p. 245).
1945-1975 and the Economic Transformation of France
After World War II, the French economy and all supporting industry had to be rebuilt or rehabilitated. A crucial role in launching this effort was played by Jean Monnet (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. who, in 1946 set forth an austerity plan that gave priority to rebuilding industry and the means of reconstruction.
Jean Monnet
Together with US funding from the Marshal Plan in 1947, French peasants left the land to work in factories and on construction projects. In 1959, Charles de Gaulle gave additional momentum to the economic recovery by devaluing the franc and creating a new franc which equaled 100 old francs. This was one of many steps de Gaulle took in his overall plan to revitalize the French economy through socialistic dirigisme (state control), which necessitated nationalizing the French electric company (EDF), the gas company (GDF), aviation (Air France), the transportation system of Paris (RATP), banking, insurance, and Renault for the automobile industry (Mermier, pp. 154-155).
The oil embargo crisis of 1973-74 caused a serious setback to the momentum that had spawned economic growth and expansion. Oil-dependent France was hit hard--recession loomed, bankruptcies increased, unemployment and inflation soared, and to make matters worse, President Georges Pompidou's health was failing due to leukemia. The new president Giscard d'Estaing and his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
Georges Pompidou Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Jacques Chirac
tried an austerity program, but it failed. Chirac resigned and was replaced by Raymond Barre, who tried even more austere measures. The program was so unpopular that it cost Giscard the election in 1981 and ushered in the Socialist government of François Mitterrand, who started a program of huge public spending. More industries were nationalized: Michelin, Peugeot. The program did not work, and by 1986, a new austerity program was implemented, complete with higher taxes, price controls, and wage freezes. This program compromised the Socialists, who now had to live under cohabitation for Mitterand's next seven-year term. When Jacques Chirac won the presidency in 1995, power returned to center-right politics, whose program for France was to return to the privatization of industry and more liberal policies.
The French economy has opened itself to the world and in doing so has shifted from a position of national independence to global interdependence. France has built plants overseas and in turn has allowed foreign companies to build on their soil; at the same time there are French companies controlled by foreign capital. José Bové's protectionist rhetoric on behalf of the small-scale French farmers also applies to French business owners who must be vigilant about the outsourcing of jobs. One challenge facing French industry in the years ahead will be to select those areas of specialization in which it is most competitive--for example, transportation, telecommunications, leisure organizations, data processing, and finance--and remain on the cutting edge there rather than to try to compete in all areas.
Of the 62 million people living in France today, approximately 44% are actively working or seeking work. The other 56% are either young people engaged in courses of study, retired people, stay-at-home parents, or disabled people unable to hold a job. Salaried French job-holders in the public sector work a 35-hour week and are entitled to five weeks of paid vacation a year. Those working in the private sector or independently (farmers, small business owners, those practicing liberal professions such as taxi drivers) are not included in this category.
One in five French people works directly or indirectly for the State. In the areas of railway and energy, the State has a monopoly, whereas in radio and aviation the State competes with the private sector.
Work and education. As in the US, young people in France are continuing their studies to meet qualifications in the increasingly demanding technologically specific job market. This explains in part the overcrowded conditions in French universities.
Future challenges. France's biggest challenge ahead will be to create enough jobs for the youth and other disenfranchised members of society. The present corporatist (i.e. special interests) welfare state is elitist in that it protects those who already have jobs or are retired on generous pensions. The pubic sector borrows heavily from the private sector's earnings to pay for these social benefits, resulting in the marginalization of those on whose shoulders the future depends. For an in-depth study, see Timothy B. Smith's France in Crisis: Welfare, Inequality and Globalization since 1980 (2004).
Trade unions in France operate quite differently from US unions because they are a vehicle of communication between management and labor. The major unions are the legal representatives of the employees and employers are under the obligation to recognize them. Strikes are called when government and management are not responsive to their demands, but the strikes are generally short and supported by the country.
The major French trade union is the CGT -- the Confédération Générale du Travail (General Work Confederation).
Notes:
The length of the work week in France has gradually declined from 40 hours in 1936 to 39 hours in 1982 to 35 hours in 1998. Annual leaves have risen from 12 working days in 1936 to 3 weeks in 1956 to 4 weeks in 1969 to 5 weeks in 1982. The law does not apply to manual laborers, tradespeople, and those in liberal professions.