As France's strikes entered their 26th day Monday, some in the country are questioning if the labour unions that are driving the crippling stoppages have outsized power.
The strikes have closed French landmarks, hurt small businesses over the Christmas season and hobbled public transportation. So packed was a Paris bus recently that an elderly man with a cane fell out when the doors opened at a stop. Yet the unions' cozy but paradoxical relationship with officialdom empowers them to block change.
"The mobilization is still there. That's a real message for the government," CGT leader Philippe Martinez, leader of the hard-left CGT union, said after a Paris march that drew thousands on Saturday. "I think ... people feel protected by the union organization," said Olivier Lefebvre, a maintenance worker at a Peugeot automobile plant and top official of the Workers' Force union at PSA Peugeot. "It's stable. It's always there, just in case."First legalized in 1884, two decades after Napoleon III accorded workers the right to strike, France's unions have built up muscle and money over the years.
The loss in membership could mean a loss in funds from union dues, but a new category of public funding came into force in 2015 with a law obliging workers to contribute 0.016% of their paychecks to unions. The small sum adds up and is part of the snug relationship between unions and the state. Officially, France "considers ... that unionism is positive for the economy ... It contributes to democracy, to development," Andolfatto said. The unstated reason is that officials and employers consider they "are buying social peace."
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