That's a headline in the International Herald Tribune today. Need I add that the dateline is France? The article is about the forthcoming festival of performing arts in Avignon. Last year's was canceled at the last minute after French mimes, clowns and other artistes went on strike over a plan to cut their unemployment benefits. The 100,000 unionized artists used to be able to get a year's worth of unemployment benefits if they worked for three months.
The electrical workers' union went on strike for a couple days recently. Demonstrators ripped the meter off the prime minister's house. Between 40,000 (if you believe the cops) and 80,000 (if you believe the union) of them marched in the Bastille. The government wants to sell some shares in the electric and gas utility, which is now wholly state-owned, and the union fears this is the first step to privatization and, eventually, layoffs.
I figure that if 40,000 or 80,000 electric workers take the day off and the lights stay on, there may be some fat to be trimmed.
I read recently in the World's Best News Magazine that a greater portion of the work force is unionized in the U.S. than France. You'd never know it. The unions have a lot of clout here, in large part because they have public support, albeit sometimes only tacit. Fraternite may be part of the motto of the Republic, but there are many deep division in society. One of the deepest may be the one between workers and "the bosses," to use a quaint socialist term that's still au courant here.
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