France Puts End to Controversial Jobs Law

MyWay News ^ | 11 april 2006 | Christine Ollivier

[unionblue83]

PARIS (AP) - President Jacques Chirac caved in to protesters on Monday, canceling a law on youth employment that fueled nationwide unrest and raising questions about France's ability to reform rigid labor laws in a globalized world.

Unions declared victory, but energized students decided to go ahead with a "day of action" Tuesday to try to knock down other measures - designed to reduce the 22 percent unemployment rate among youths - that are viewed as threatening coveted job protections.

In an announcement that amounted to a humiliating admission of defeat, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on nationwide TV that the contested measure would be replaced.

Chirac had ordered the pullback after weighing the results of talks with students and unions, the debilitating political fallout for the right and the danger of increasingly daring student protests on railroad tracks and highways.

[unionblue83]

Shocking...the French have surrendered...again.

[Kimmers]

I don't think that country will ever run out of white flags.

[bdfromlv]

Surrendering to yourself is the Ultimate in KerryrreK type actions.

[sgtbono2002]

Humiliating defeat isnt new to the French.

[Archon of the East]

The rewards of nanny state socialism are so enlightening.

[DeuceTraveler]

Somehow I find it difficult to bash the French this week when our own politicians have surrendered to our illegal immigrants after the latest demonstrations.

[NavVet]

Ironically, many European companies rely heavily on contract temp labor as a way around the restrictive employment contracts. The company that needs an engineer contracts with a placement firm for the placement firm to provide an engineer for a year. At the end of the year, the company may or may not renew for another year. Sometimes the contracts are only for six months.

These efforts to legislate lifetime employment have only made workers less secure while producing record unemployment rates.

[highlander_UW]

Unable to find any external enemies to surrender to the French surrender to themselves.

[unionblue83]

The politicians here are trolling for votes and making absolute @sses of themselves. However, I don't believe that any amnesty bill proposed will get through the House of Reps. Hell, the Senate had to shelve the "compromise" bill because they didn't have enough cloture votes. Time will tell but I believe that this could lead to a huge conservative ground-swell but what it does I can't venture to guess.
OTOH, it's always easy to bash the French.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

What a bunch of wimps. The law was already passed, all they had to do was ride out the storm. They should have called out the water cannons and police. Of course they seem to be afraid of demonstrators, since they did not crack down on the Islamic rioters earlier this year. Stick a fork in France, IT IS DONE.

[Prysson]

The French are so aptly refered to as "Surrender Monkey's" I think they would probably surrender to a pack of catholic school girls carrying dodgeballs.

[samtheman]

"Let them eat shit."

--- The Labor Unions Speaking of Unemployed Youth

[USS Alaska]

[unionblue83]

My buddy, a former Marine, calls them snail-eating, rifle-droppers.

[JoeGar]

First, he was for the new law; now he's against it. Where have I heard that before?

[300magnum]

If you Google "french military victories" and click the I feel lucky button, you get

Did you mean French Militay Defeats?

[trebb]

I have mixed emotions on this one - do you suppose that if we took to the streets in sufficient numbers, and for long enough, we could get rid of our current tax system and the pork barrel spending? Would the Congress listen to the People or would it decide to squash the insurrection?

[ARCADIA]

"The law was already passed, all they had to do was ride out the storm."

The law was idiotic as passed. It is one thing to change the law ending or reducing employment protections for all workers; but to apply the change exclusively to young people is to drive the next generation screaming into the arms of the nearest union representative. This stupidity will haunt France for decades. The lesson that they have just taught their youths is precisely the opposite of what they should have done. The young now know, that without the aid of their heroic unions, they would fall prey to their employers and their government. That is going to be a hard lesson to unlearn.

[R.W.Ratikal]

France's real problem is not jobs, it's socialism. A socialist economy cannot produce or accumulate wealth, it can only consume.

All of Europe, under European style socialism, is headed for economic collapse. The European Communisty was an attempt to hold off collapse by controlling deficit spending but that's an impossibility when government controls wages and prices.

When government guarantees everything, it can protect nothing.

[xarmydog]

The French were the first country to have a four speed tank.One gear for forward,and three for reverse.