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Wednesday Mar 22, 2006
French students protest new employment legislation
A perspective from Naima Bouteldja, a French journalist, on the recent protests among students in France, objecting to new legislation implemented by the "faltering" government of Dominique de Villepin to permit "employers to fire under-26s immediately and without reason during the first two years of their employment". Trade union leaders have called for a national strike next Tuesday.
Starting peacefully but with tension, students across the country succeeding in closing 16 universities and disrupting classes at 35 more, last Saturday saw 1.5 million people - mostly students - take to the streets in protest. By nightfall, there was rioting between the police and several hundred protestors in Paris, reminiscent to many of the violence across mostly poor suburbs of France last November.
Quoting sociologist Francois Dubet, Bouteldja considers that:
Middle-class students live in increasing fear that they may end up on the wrong side of the line at any moment. In this sense, "the anti-CPE ["contrat de première embauche", or, first employment contract] movement is for the middle classes what last November's riots were to the suburban poor", who were already on the other side of this boundary and could no longer tolerate it.
See what TheSite bulletin board users have had to say about it. As one person writes, "Why are French students so much more ready to rise in protest than British ones?"
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 5:44 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
I think it's a reasonable argument that French labour laws make it overly difficult for employers to sack poor-performing staff (and in turn, recruit able, young replacements). However, to introduce a solution which means that just those under 26 have no rights is ridiculous and unfair.
The French government seems to show a particular contempt for the country's youth. In contrast, it makes Blair and company seem like angels.
Posted by Dom Waghorn on March 23, 2006 at 04:17 PM GMT+00:00 #