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| French high school and university students attend a demonstration against the French labour law proposal in Nantes, France, as part of a nationwide labour reform protests and strikes. The slogan reads ” We have a leftist party who deserves to be punched”. |
French students have taken to the streets this week, joining labor unions in a nationwide protest against proposed labor reforms by French President Francois Hollande. Plagued by a stubbornly high unemployment rate Hollande has pledged not to run for a second term if he can't bring the 10.2% rate down to acceptable levels. Unfortunately, in order to do that, he's proposing measures that would literally change the French way of life. Hence, the battle against change began with bottles and rocks being hurled at cops and 130 arrests made in the melee.
For decades French workers have enjoyed a 35 hour work week, with 25% overtime pay for every hour worked thereafter. If Hollande's reforms are passed by Parliament, overtime compensation would be cut from 25% to 10%. French workers enjoy a level of job security unheard of in the United States. Save for cops, fighter-fighters, teachers and government employees, the average American worker can be summarily fired without cause and escorted off company property before he/she can say goodbye to the other slaves left behind. They call it At Will employment. Employers can't get away with stuff like that in France.
Remarkably engaged politically, these French students had no trouble understanding the new proposals would also place caps on severance pay which never existed before. If an employer dares to fire a French worker, there's gonna be a price to pay. And when you think about it, it's a win-win for all concerned. In America when a worker gets fired, many times they're thrown out on the street with nothing. If that worker isn't financially prepared for a long job hunt, things could get ugly fast. Now we're talking public assistance (America's social safety-net) and we all know how much that sucks in this country.
Hundreds of thousands of French students could see current labor protections like these guaranteed a life style worth living and a life style that needed to be protected. From their perspective, the new labor proposals would benefit big business at the expense of the next generation, as the new rules would apply to them going forward. And rightly so, they're not having it. If Hollande is going to save his ass, he's not going to do it by tinkering with the French experience.
While some may call the French way of life spoiled and lazy, this observer would call it cool and enviable. If only America had such protections, guarantees and assurances. If only Americans could get off at 5:00 PM, home by 6:00 PM, finishing dinner with the kids by 7:00 PM, at the cafe by 8:00 PM and home by 10:00 or 11:00 PM. With no healthcare expenses, childcare worries, college debt looming or job related stress to wear them down like Americans, one could easily argue the French aren't spoiled and lazy, they're happy and healthy. And rightly so, they're fighting like hell to keep it that way.
Bottom line: When one considers why the average American student has been taking to the streets lately, one might be embarrassed, considering America is the so-called exceptional nation. Our kids are protesting with signs reading Black Lives Matter, I Can't Breathe and Hands Up Don't Shoot. Our kids are protesting and demonstrating for an hourly minimum wage on par with what all other industrialized nations already guarantee. And as far as job security is concerned, it hasn't existed in America for the average worker for so long, our kids barely understand the concept. Thus, it should be no surprise to see why Bernie Sanders is doing so well lately. Podcast below!
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