France - General strike?

[crankedup]

Perfect timing as if to remind us of how the UK used to be back in the 1970's. Their Government wants to rein in on the Unions, the Unions say nope leading to the current pantomime. Of course the French are much more Unionied than what we ever were in the 1970's they still believe in the Brotherhood and looking after the common man.
So how bad is it likely to get in your opinions? will it be all over by mid September? Timing couldn't be better, reminds me that France is one of the stronger EU Members, will the strikes have an impact on our referendum in terms of our wavering voters?

[Digga]

Pah! I strike in your general direction!

(It will be bad, they are trying to compress several decades of reform into a last-ditch, desperate attempt to avoid an almost inevitable decline.)

[ATG]

They're not trying to rein in the unions, they're tweaking enjoyment law ... the way the 35 hour working week is calculated, holiday entitlement, and how pay can be varied (I think). Union reform would lead protesters to rebuild the Bastille so they could storm it again.

Is there a message here for the UK's exit debate? Only that it demonstrates that the EU has bugger all impact on member's labour law. France is free to have daft labour law, the UK is free to have profoundly different rules. This gives the UK a major competitive advantage in the single market.

[emicen]

crankedup said:

Timing couldn't be better, reminds me that France is one of the stronger EU Members, will the strikes have an impact on our referendum in terms of our wavering voters?

Unlikely they will hear about it. I went looking for an update on the fuel blockades at half their refineries yesterday, nothing on the BBC site expect an article from Tuesday. Clearly the problem had gone away yesterday [although less EU keen media outlets were still talking about it].

From my point of view not much has been mentioned of the rioting caused by labour reforms in Belgium either, save for a mention the Police chief got donkey punched on the back of the head leaving him sufficiently sparkled to need hospital treatment.

The article on a further 10.8bn EURO funding package for Greece managed to miss the IMF report released the same day saying its still a complete basket case with no adequate attempt made at reforms and will continue to get even more indebted unless significant haircuts are taken and repayment terms seriously altered.

[greygoose]

emicen said:

crankedup said:

Timing couldn't be better, reminds me that France is one of the stronger EU Members, will the strikes have an impact on our referendum in terms of our wavering voters?

Unlikely they will hear about it. I went looking for an update on the fuel blockades at half their refineries yesterday, nothing on the BBC site expect an article from Tuesday. Clearly the problem had gone away yesterday [although less EU keen media outlets were still talking about it].

From my point of view not much has been mentioned of the rioting caused by labour reforms in Belgium either, save for a mention the Police chief got donkey punched on the back of the head leaving him sufficiently sparkled to need hospital treatment.

The article on a further 10.8bn EURO funding package for Greece managed to miss the IMF report released the same day saying its still a complete basket case with no adequate attempt made at reforms and will continue to get even more indebted unless significant haircuts are taken and repayment terms seriously altered.

The French strike is on the BBC website and has been mentioned on the radio news.

[Adrian W]

ATG said:

Is there a message here for the UK's exit debate? Only that it demonstrates that the EU has bugger all impact on member's labour law. France is free to have daft labour law, the UK is free to have profoundly different rules. This gives the UK a major competitive advantage in the single market.

Not quiet true, it seems that the UK comply with EU labour law and most EU legislation, whereas most other EU countries pick and choose

[emicen]

greygoose said:

The French strike is on the BBC website and has been mentioned on the radio news.

Zero on the front page until 8 minutes ago and its still a scroll down and look affair, zero on the front page yesterday.

Go in to the Europe section and there's an article today, there wasn't yesterday.

I'd expect massive disruption in our nearest neighbour to get more coverage than that, possibly more significant than a report saying HS2 isn't value for money [no st Sherlock].

[heebeegeetee]

crankedup said:

Perfect timing as if to remind us of how the UK used to be back in the 1970's.

Dear god, are you serious? I reckon France in the 1970's was a better place to be that the UK today.

If the UK of the 1970's was anything like France at pretty much any time, I want to be back there.

[crankedup]

heebeegeetee said:

crankedup said:

Perfect timing as if to remind us of how the UK used to be back in the 1970's.

Dear god, are you serious? I reckon France in the 1970's was a better place to be that the UK today.

If the UK of the 1970's was anything like France at pretty much any time, I want to be back there.

What I mean is that France has tough Unions, whereas the UK Unions have had their nuts chopped off. I like France, we visit life long friends who have lived in the VAR region for 26 years following departure from good old Blighty.

[crankedup]

ATG said:

They're not trying to rein in the unions, they're tweaking enjoyment law ... the way the 35 hour working week is calculated, holiday entitlement, and how pay can be varied (I think). Union reform would lead protesters to rebuild the Bastille so they could storm it again.

Is there a message here for the UK's exit debate? Only that it demonstrates that the EU has bugger all impact on member's labour law. France is free to have daft labour law, the UK is free to have profoundly different rules. This gives the UK a major competitive advantage in the single market.

Well yes but they have to reign in Union power to be able to introduce new employment laws. The French Unions will simply not roll over and say 'after you'. Yes we have a competitive edge over France but for many UK workers the price of that edge is st employment rules.

[Jockman]

crankedup said:

Well yes but they have to reign in Union power to be able to introduce new employment laws. The French Unions will simply not roll over and say 'after you'. Yes we have a competitive edge over France but for many UK workers the price of that edge is st employment rules.

What's the unemployment rate en France, mon ami?

[Digga]

Jockman said:

What's the unemployment rate en France, mon ami?

133 hours a week.

[Guybrush]

Another well sorted EU partner, should we remain.

[0000]

greygoose said:

The French strike is on the BBC website and has been mentioned on the radio news.

I'd imagine limiting coverage to radio (anyone under 30 remember that?) and random corners of their massive news site when they have a 24 TV hour news channel is exactly the point.

[greygoose]

0000 said:

greygoose said:

The French strike is on the BBC website and has been mentioned on the radio news.

I'd imagine limiting coverage to radio (anyone under 30 remember that?) and random corners of their massive news site when they have a 24 TV hour news channel is exactly the point.

Seems to be the fifth story on the website, so hardly a random corner. Anyway I am in France at the moment and the petrol stations are still open in Nord Pas de Calais though there has been a go slow on the motorway this morning.

[jjlynn27]

Adrian W said:

ATG said:

Is there a message here for the UK's exit debate? Only that it demonstrates that the EU has bugger all impact on member's labour law. France is free to have daft labour law, the UK is free to have profoundly different rules. This gives the UK a major competitive advantage in the single market.

Not quiet true, it seems that the UK comply with EU labour law and most EU legislation, whereas most other EU countries pick and choose

Wouldn't that be the fault of democratically elected UK government, the ones that you can vote out, if you don't like what they do? Or is this another conspiracy by 'EU paymasters', that's forcing UK to do things by the book, while letting everyone else of the proverbial hook?

[crankedup]

Jockman said:

crankedup said:

Well yes but they have to reign in Union power to be able to introduce new employment laws. The French Unions will simply not roll over and say 'after you'. Yes we have a competitive edge over France but for many UK workers the price of that edge is st employment rules.

What's the unemployment rate en France, mon ami?

Errrrrrm, errrrrrrr, 10% well that's the official number. Mostly youngsters apparently, lazy and don't want to do rotten jobs that immigrants are more than happy to do. All sounds depressingly familiar. Of course it's a Global economy and only the big bosses are winners in this particular race. Next thing we know is kids will be scampering up chimneys.

[crankedup]

Guybrush said:

Another well sorted EU partner, should we remain.

Indeed, the point I was attempting to make, the EU is going to be chocka with basket cases, it's bad enough already. I disregard all mod the bull about how UK money will be ring fenced from bailouts. Work hard in the UK and see your money Wong it's way over to basket cases.

[FredClogs]

Here's the world productivity rankings by country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by...

You'll see that in 2013 (latest figure maybe?) France was almost 20% more productive than the UK, that's GDP per hour worked.

I think they'd be quite right to suppose there isn't much wrong with their employment laws etc... Maybe we should be doing more of what they're doing?

[s2art]

FredClogs said:

Here's the world productivity rankings by country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by...

You'll see that in 2013 (latest figure maybe?) France was almost 20% more productive than the UK, that's GDP per hour worked.

I think they'd be quite right to suppose there isn't much wrong with their employment laws etc... Maybe we should be doing more of what they're doing?

What was their unemployment rate in 2013? Its easy to have higher productivity if you make life difficult for employers but at the cost of high unemployment.