A Tale of Two Cities

[Adam's Apple]

A Tale of Two Cities
By Cokie and Steve Roberts
April 4, 2006

In Paris this week the streets were filled with protestors denouncing a new law making it easier for French companies to hire and fire younger workers. French union leaders refused even to meet with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin until the law was shelved.

In Detroit (founded in 1701 by the French explorer Cadillac), leaders of the United Auto Workers negotiated a painful but sensible plan offering generous buyouts to 113,000 union members working for General Motors and another 13,000 employees of Delphi, GM's main supplier. The deal avoided a possible strike that could have spun the struggling automaker into bankruptcy.

Across the industrialized world, aging work forces and global competition are demanding fresh thinking from corporations, governments and unions, and the reactions in Paris and Detroit represent two very different responses to this challenge. French labor leaders badly failed the test, ignoring a new economic reality that is smacking them right between their tightly closed eyes.

for full article:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0406/croberts.php3

 

[musicman]

And now, it would appear, this desperate lunge toward sanity has gone for naught. How long. I wonder, before the French think to ask themselves, "What have we won?"

PARIS(AP) President Jacques Chirac on Monday threw out part of a youth labor law that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid to end the crisis.

http://www.rr.com/flash/index.cfm

 

[musicman]

Link doesn't work; it must be French.