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| World Home » Current Affairs » | Thu. Aug 28, 2008 |
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Students step up strikes to oppose new French Labor law MIL/NYT, Mar 22, 2006. Paris - The earlier efforts made by students and their unions have not brought the desired results from the French Government. They have now decided to step up their demonstrations and strikes on March 28 with a view to fighting a hotly contested new labor law, which has made it easier for companies abruptly to end the employment of young people. The Students have scheduled to march in Paris again, continuing the protests that began Feb. 7 and have grown into a national movement, tipping the embattled government into crisis. President Jacques Chirac repeated calls for dialogue between the government and opponents of the law, which he said could be "improved". The Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with business leaders, unemployed youths and students to find out a way out of the impasse that has threatened his political career, as per New York Times. "He is ready to go further than this," a spokesman for Mr. de Villepin said Monday, hinting that there was room for negotiation. "If there are proposals from the unions, he is ready to study them." The battle over what amounts to an incremental change in the country's social contract is emblematic of the overwhelming challenge facing many Western European nations as they try to loosen rigid labor laws and trim costly benefits that have built up in the social-welfare systems that emerged after World War II. Governments recognize the need for fundamental change, particularly as their societies age and the burden of pensions and health care balloon. But few have the political will to force those changes on their societies. "Everybody knows it's impossible to continue with this model, but nobody in France has found a solution to respond to the problem," said Jean-Daniel Lévy, a director at C.S.A., a polling company based in Paris. Part of the problem is that the French are wary of the more market-driven systems in the United States and Britain, which they consider heartless. "What they've been able to do is define what they don't want, but they have trouble saying what it is they want," Mr. Lévy said.
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