France - Public workers on strike - March 23, 2010

Public-sector workers across France went on strike on Tuesday 23 March to protest the country's economic woes and the government's unpopular reforms. The strike caused some disruption for commuters in French cities. Trains to Britain and Belgium were running normally, but only 65% of traffic was being guaranteed within France. Unions say French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government has not offered satisfactory plans on jobs, salaries, purchasing power and working conditions, and they hope to hammer home that message in the wake of Sunday's regional election defeats. After that defeat, Sarkozy fired his labour minister, Xavier Darcos.

English: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/23/france-strike.html#ixzz0jCVVGhx0

French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip.php?article3870

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.