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.
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.
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.
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?
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 The perception that the French are better at fighting for their rights than other nations is at best outdated or it was just a myth all along.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
They successfully canceled a gas tax raise.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My example was the French Army. I didn’t dig for modern sources for you because I only wanted to post the one I liked.