you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 16 points 8 months ago (12 children)

Protests and labor strikes increase the leverage workers have when negotiating for better compensation. There is no leverage if there is no protest.

One of my favorite examples was a mutiny during WWI where they were fed up with charging to their deaths. The tangible results were the commander got sacked and they didn't have to charge to their death.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 12 child comments
  • [–] -3 points 8 months ago (11 children)

    Yes, I even gave concrete example of how rail workers in Spain used this leverage recently.

    I'm asking for concrete examples from France. What did they achieve recently? WWI is not recently.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    How about the gilets jaunes protests? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_protests

    The french, specifically, have a long tradition of putting their foot down and refusing to accept what their government is doing. I don't have specific links discussing it, but I know that occasionally entire major motorways will be shut down because farmers or lorry drivers have blocked them with heavy industrial machines, and they stay that way until those people decide to move. I also know that there's an entire region (Brittany) where the motorways aren't toll roads, unlike the rest of France, because every time they try the cameras and toll booths get destroyed.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Originally, the yellow vests protested because of an increase onfuel tax, to finance environmental measures. They got that tax increase to be halted. Also, agricultors regularly protest and get the reintroduction of harmful pesticides. Basically, the only trade-off the government is ready to accept is giving up on ecological progress.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Yes, but what did they achieve? I know about the protests. The wiki article you linked doesn't mention any gains.

    "Participation in the weekly protests diminished and eventually ended entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, although minor protests continued after health restrictions were lifted."

    Those were mainly Macron opponents protesting and demanding his resignation. He didn't resign. They had some other demands but the article doesn't mention if any of them were realized by the government.

    So yes, the protests looked nice in pictures but besides damaging some property, what did they achieve?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    They successfully canceled a gas tax raise.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    I think it was more of a delay than cancellation: https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/more-drivers-to-pay-higher-pollution-taxes-on-new-car-registrations-in-france/705889

    Gas prices went up everywhere anyway. But yes, I guess that was some concession from the government so it's a good example.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    You’ll have to look a decade in the past.

    Under former presidents (Hollande, Sarko and Chirac) protests did work.

    Now it’s only since Macron that they are less effective as he does not care unless everything is literally burning.

    I don’t have examples in mind, I participated in some of them but I was younger and do not really remember the details.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago

    Someone gave example of mass protests against El Khomri law under Hollande and despite the protests the law did pass. But yeah, maybe before that it did work. My point is that in Spain for example worker unions score wins all the time while it looks like in France the government simply learned to ignore the protests. The perception that the French are better at fighting for their rights than other nations is at best outdated or it was just a myth all along.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    35 hr work week has been maintained https://apnews.com/general-news-96d7f44de4e44f1ebdc7bf86f5e856e4

    Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being upvoted. Yes, the "35-hour" protests were amazing, but turns out they did not win the thing they wanted. The law was fucked with in exactly the way that the government said it would fuck with it, and they pushed it through by force.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    This law did pass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Khomri_law

    Very curious you claim that they maintained 35 hours work week while only posting a link about the protests. It's like people think that protesting something == getting something.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    You seem to be right. I was wrong. I really thought they won that one!

    The showing was amazing and inspiring, but if they didn't win the thing they were fighting for, then we need to learn a lesson from that too. Thanks for pushing back.

  • source
  • parent