Airbus Strike

[Douai]

"TOULOUSE, 6 mars (Reuters) - Plus de 10.000 salariés
d'Airbus et d'entreprises sous-traitantes ont manifesté
mardi dans les rues de Toulouse pour dénoncer le plan de
restructuration "Power 8" annoncé la semaine dernière par le
constructeur aéronautique."

En Français:http://www.france24.com/france24Public/fr/nouvelles/france/20070306-Airbus-manif-France.html
En Anglais:
http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070306180933.faafsxf9&cat=world

[TheOrator]

What are they striking against? Aren't they fired anyways?

[guignol]

fired? first of all, no one is going to be "fired". the payroll will be reduced in the next 4 years by 10.000 workers (4.300 in france) through early retirement and negotiated departures.

neither is there a strike as such, but demonstrations. most of the people taking part are not even directly concerned, but they have that quaint old europe delusion that people are more important than profits. disgusting, isn't it?

[Catel]

I see you've understood France as well as Ted Stanger did :D

[Pierre-Henri]

It seems our friend Guignol was ironic, no ? After so many years in France, the poor uprooted man doesn't think like an American anymore :

http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/n/nm/nmy/182214_us_dollars_1.jpg

But like a true French :

http://www.resistances.be/images/lcr.jpg

You're right Guignol ! Profit is evil, money sucks ! Get rid of this filthy imperialist-capitalist tool that oppresses the working masses ! Get rid of your money !

Give it to me.

[guignol]

actually i can think like both, and i consider that somewhere in the middle is the best path... that somewhere being much closer to france than the states.

and even in the states, despite all the incense burned at the altar of free enterprise® when big enterprises like boeing get into trouble, they get bailed out by the feds. the only difference is that all the relief ends up in wall street pockets... et ils foutent les 30.000 pauvres cons à la lourde quand même.

[lefutur]

actually i can think like both, and i consider that somewhere in the middle is the best path... that somewhere being much closer to france than the states.

and even in the states, despite all the incense burned at the altar of free enterprise® when big enterprises like boeing get into trouble, they get bailed out by the feds. the only difference is that all the relief ends up in wall street pockets... et ils foutent les 30.000 pauvres cons à la lourde quand même.


I agree with that notion. America is too pro-business/ pro-corporate but France suffers a bit from all the strikes and an expectation that government will solve all their problems. Its disappointing to see my french parents starting to adopt a fear of the revolutionary principles in france, but they're old and I think the Paris riots really freaked them out. They are Sarkozy supporters now and I tell them that he's a racist and too much of an American style capitalist but they've gone pretty conservative in their old-age.

I admire the starndard of living and equality in Scandanavian countries like Denmark and Sweden but France is perhaps to much of a mixed bag ethnically and socially for such a socialist system. On the other hand, the US seems to be quickly losing its soul and unless things change with the next presidential election I forsee even more corruption and worship of the almighty dollar in the future.

I was always pretty disillusioned with corporate America (Office Space is one of my favorite movies) but even more-so when I was laid-off from a company that reported a 27% increase in revenue immediately following the firing of 20% of its workforce.

[Pierre-Henri]

I won't vote for Sarkozy and I'm not especially supporting him, but you're making a wrong statement when you say that all his voters are narrow-minded conservatives. On some points, he's right.

I'm not a full-fledged capitalist, I strongly believe that the government must take care of major collective issues (health, education, defence, justice...), but I also think the french bureaucracy is so monstruous today that it's completely paralyzing the country.

We have 36 000 municipalities, 18 000 county-like structures(1), 100 departments, 25 regions...

French Congress (senate + parliament) totalizes 896 politicians. That's roughly one per 74 000 citizens. In comparison, the USA have one per 560 000 citizens. THAT'S SEVEN TIMES MORE CONGRESSMEN !

Current governement has 32 ministries, each of them being a gigantic and tentacular bureaucraty in itself. For example, we have more than 30 agencies that are currently working on traffic security at the same time. Ministery of Education has 1 300 000 employees, among which only 800 000 are teachers.

Our diplomatic network of ambassies is one of the most expanded (and expensive) in the world, only second to USA.

All in all, with roughly 600 000 elected representatives at all levels (~1% of the whole population), we have the greatest number of politicians in all the western world. We also have more 5 000 000 public employees (2), which is another record.

And we could talk about the unions of public employees. In 2002, the Banque de France gave 93 millions to its unions, through its "Comité d'Entreprise". Ninety. Three. Millions. Euros. In. One. Year. And the figures are comparable at EDF, the SNCF, the Education Nationale and all other major public unions(3).

Once again, I don't say all of this because I support Sarkozy. Sarkozy is a nationalist and nationalism sucks. I say all of this for only one reason : because it is the truth. Bureaucracy is killing the country.


----------------------
(1) in french, "intercommunalités". Note that, on average, it makes 1.7 "intermunicipalities" per "municipality". This number itself proves how tangled and foolishly organized the whole thing truly is.

(2) Here is a funny thing : nobody knows their exact number.

(3) [SOUR_IRONY] but, of course, the public unions are defending the orphan and the widow, the poor and the oppressed, the unemployed and the homeless. They're wealthy beyond the wildest imagination, but it's OK, then. When they go on strike, it's not to defend their millions, not a all ! French public unions go on strike every two weeks because their hearts are pure. [\SOUR_IRONY]