France - Thousands of postal workers and teachers on strike - November 24, 2009

On 24 November, thousands of French postal workers and teachers went on strike in separate protests over the future of two of France's biggest public sector institutions. The protests are the latest in a series of strikes by public sector workers angered by reforms President Nicolas Sarkozy says are necessary to improve efficiency and reduce costs. According to the SNES-FSU union, 40% of secondary school teachers took part in the strike over job reductions and school reforms. Teachers' unions are angry at measures which include new training standards, changing the selection process to make it easier for parents to choose a school and steadily reducing the number of teachers. Education Minister Luc Chatel said the government would not back down on plans that aim to trim the overall public service payroll by replacing only half the public servants who retire.

English: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE5AN35H20091124

via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=France

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter, which presents up-to-date information on collective bargaining developments across Europe. 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 at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009. All rights reserved. The ETUI is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. The ETUI is financially supported by the European Community. The European Community is not responsible for any use made of the information contained in this news section.