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| Europe |
| French workers in third national strike |
| 2003-06-09 |
| The French National Sport... The third nationwide strike in as many weeks will begin in France tonight as public-sector workers protest against government plans to reform the pension system. How does anything get done over there? Oh, that's right. Nothing's supposed to get done over there. Forget I mentioned it. The 24-hour strikes, timed to coincide with the return to work after a long holiday weekend and with a parliamentary debate of the reform plans, threaten to cripple public transport again. Transport unions, which hobbled rail and air services and grounded most international flights last week, said they would resume action from 7pm British time, threatening the return of hundreds of people from the Pentecost holiday weekend. Screw the people! But that's okay. Everybody who gets screwed in this strike will just screw these people over when their union goes on strike. It's so simplisme! "We will relaunch the action after Pentecost," Marc Blondel, the head of France's third biggest union, Force Ouvrier, told television channel LCI. France's CGT union said in a statement that railway workers would take part in the strike, which is also backed by electricity workers. It has proposed further action in the rail sector on 12 and 15 June. A srike a week, that's all we ask... The action recalls strikes in 1995, also over pension reform, which damaged the conservative government of the time. It lost power in 1997. The incumbent centre-right government is showing no sign of backing down, vowing to forge ahead with the reforms requiring workers to pay into the state pension scheme for 40 years from 2008, in line with the private sector, up from 37.5 years now. The compromise will be to add 2.5 years vacation time to everyone's contracts to cover the disparity. That'll keep everybody happy. The measure is designed to cope with an "age crunch" expected to hit the system later this decade as the post-war baby-boom generation floods into retirement. Air France said on Friday it could see some disturbances to short and medium-haul flights because of the strike but had not changed its schedule. Air traffic controller unions have said they will join the strike, which could force authorities to limit the number of flights. So why should Air France even go through the effort when the ATC's will take care of that end for them. Teachers opposed to changes affecting university autonomy and the transfer of staff have also threatened a walkout on 12 June if talks with the government, scheduled for tomorrow, prove unsatisfactory. And, somehow, you get the feeling they will. Parents and students fear the industrial action will disrupt the annual secondary school exams due to start that day. The government says it will take "maximum precautions" to ensure the exams go smoothly. Unless the test givers go on strike. Which they will eventually. Yes, I quake in fear when I think of the French led EU giving us a run for our money economically and productivity wise. Pay attention, Europe. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #8 M-IV - THAT was funny. |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-06-09 23:19:03 |
| #7 "Consider how much the world eventually paid because of the collapse of the Weimar Republic." Omigod. We're going to send the UN peacekeepers into France. The mind reels... If the UN had troops in France, how would either side know when to retreat? Could the French veto a UN intervention in France? If so, would a NATO force of Poles and Latvians be within its charter? If not, who would go? We could appeal to the North Koreans to assume neutral peacekeeping duties. Mmm, all those tasty French babies... Nope, I think we're gonna have to let France implode. There IS one proven alternative... but I don't think... err, TGA? |
| Posted by: Mark IV 2003-06-09 21:35:55 |
| #6 Pentacost will give way to Holocaust. France only has a chance if they start reform now, or it will be another Iran smack dab in the middle of Europe. I hope that we and the Brits are making contingency plans. It would be good to have Germany and Spain on our side for containment. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-06-09 19:49:00 |
| #5 One thing's for sure. After the Islamic demographic bomb goes off in La Belle France, you won't be allowed to use the word "Pentecost" as the call to prayer rings out from the mosque of Notre Dame |
| Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-06-09 19:02:49 |
| #4 Steve Den Beste has an interesting series of essays and letters from French correspondents discussing the strikes on his website. His conclusion is that the weasels are headed for trouble, and that's trouble for the rest of us: As long as the current economic policies there continue without major reform, collapse is inevitable. The longer it's delayed, the worse it will be, but there's no way of knowing exactly how it will happen, or when. There are gradual processes involved such as capital flight, brain drain, demographic inversion, and a rising level of radicalism and terrorist violence by trade unions. And there's always the spectre of France's disaffected Muslim population (who have been smuggling and stockpiling weapons) to spice up the projections. There's going to be a tipping point, and then things will change really rapidly and almost unpredictably. . . . Consider how much the world eventually paid because of the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Then consider what the price would have been if the Weimar Republic had owned France's nuclear arsenal, and it had fallen into the hands of the Nazi dictatorship. What would happen because of the formation of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of France? Or a nuclear-armed People's Republic of Socialist France? Both with a religious zeal to spread the new French enlightenment to the world? I don't want to find out. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-06-09 17:34:34 |
| #3 I love it - "We will relaunch the action after Pentecost..." Bet the commies loved that one. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-06-09 16:49:57 |
| #2 Thats allow the French to get US Visa's, not issue French Visa's which are only issued to dictators on the run. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-06-09 16:36:38 |
| #1 The US should open up the floodgates and allow a bunch of French Visa's right now. Everyone in France worth taking in would jump at the chance. Let the rest ride out their socialist dillusions to the inevitable end. Taking their best and brightest is the best revenge possible. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-06-09 16:35:48 |