The French strikes and demonstrations over a proposed increase in the retirement age have lasted for weeks and attracted wide sympathy in a society whose work force is less than 10 percent unionized. But the proposal will soon become law, setting the stage for confrontations with France’s unions, which continue to starve the country of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products, and are pressing for demonstrations afterward, the International Herald Tribune reported.
It will be a treacherous moment for most of the players in French politics, not least of all the unions themselves. The outcome is likely to set the tone for the many similar conflicts that are sure to arise in future years as the government seeks to deal with a budget deficit by scaling back generous social welfare provisions the state can no longer afford.
President Nicolas Sarkozy insists he will not back down, and in fact wants to contrast his firmness with the weakness of governments that have let the “democracy of the street” overrule that of an elected Parliament.
If he does persevere, the unions — by continuing futile demonstrations that only annoy French drivers, businessmen, and tourists and have cost France billions to date — risk displaying their historical weakness, rather than their strength.
“Since 1995, on the national level, the unions haven’t brought home a victory against the state,” said Stéphane Sirot, a historian of the labor movement at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. “One can say the unions have been in a crisis for the last 20 years.” Still, he said, the protests today, with popular sympathy and student involvement, “shows there is still a certain vigor.”
The unions, pressed by the more radical and left-wing union CGT, have decided to keep pushing the government, with two more days of national demonstrations on Thursday and again on Nov. 6, trying to force Mr. Sarkozy to withdraw the law he has staked so much of his reputation on winning.
François Chérèque, the secretary general of the CFDT, the country’s second-largest union, said that “the employees have asked us to continue, and we’re doing it.” The CGT, which was a Communist union at one time, is more ideological and holds power in the key pressure points of transport, refineries and fuel depots.
But the determination of the protesters — and their dislike of Mr. Sarkozy — is forcing the hand of Mr. Chérèque, whose aides have privately expressed concerns about pressing the strikes too far and damaging the unions, by making them look to the public more like entrenched interests trying to preserve unaffordable privileges than like champions of the little guy.
“Secretly, several leaders of the confederation wouldn’t look unfavorably on a petering-out of the movement,” one Chérèque aide told the newspaper Libération. “They know the Élysée is never going to give in. The longer the movement lasts, the more the frustrations of the protesters are difficult to manage internally,” raising the risk of violence that could drain away even more public support.
For now, whatever their quiet misgivings, the unions are united on more protest. Read more.
