NICOLAS SARKOZY this week faces the first mass protests over his handling of the financial crisis as unions prepare to paralyse France in a general strike uniting train-drivers, air traffic controllers, journalists, bank staff and even ski-lift operators.
“Black Thursday” (January 29th) is the first general strike since the French president’s election in 2007. All the leading unions have joined forces to protest that the government’s stimulus plans should focus less on companies and more on workers’ job protection and purchasing power.
The protests reflect a mood of social unrest that has been building for months. Unemployment had dropped in the first half of last year but it is now spiralling, particularly among the young, and is forecast to reach 10 per cent in 2010. The recession is predicted to be worse than thought, while flagging exports and consumer sales have hammered the manufacturing sector.
The strike will unite private and public-sector workers from schools, hospitals national TV and radio to postal services, bank clerks and supermarket employees. Even helicopter pilots and staff from the company that operates the French stock exchange are taking part. High school pupils, university lecturers, lawyers and magistrates will also protest at a raft of Mr Sarkozy’s reforms and planned job cuts. Despite the predicted chaos, one poll found that 70 per cent of French people either support or sympathise with the strikes.
“It’s very rare for our bank workers to join in this kind of strike action,” said Lionel Manchin, of the SNIACAM independent union at the bank Crédit Agricole. “This is about protecting jobs and protecting our purchasing power. The bosses have been well protected with their salaries, it’s now time to protect the workers.”
The strikes follow months of tension after high school students delayed an education reform with sit-ins, strikes and demonstrations. Earlier this month a radical union led a strike that shut down Paris’s second-biggest railway station.
In the past two weeks, Mr Sarkozy has criss-crossed the country giving more than 17 new year speeches, but protesters have been kept in check by riot police. – ( Guardianservice)