Springtime

It's the first day of Spring today: Monday, March 20, 2006.

Last Saturday was the running of La Primavera, the annual Milan-San Remo bicycle race. In Amerloque's universe, that is the marker for "Official" Spring, even though he couldn't care in the least about bike racing.

Amerloque is happy indeed to see the end of the 2005-2006 Winter. It was a cold, dull winter in Paris and France in general. According to the French weather services, temperatures were low this year, as they used to be in the 1960s and 1970s, global warming notwithstanding. Ski resorts and mountain destinations were swathed in white powder, to the joy of skiers both French and foreign.

The season of political demonstrations has begun, a bit earlier than usual: in the past week there were three relatively large manifs in Paris. Saturday's was by far the largest, and was echoed by dozens of similar events in the provinces. Anywhere from 500,000 to 1.5 million people were in the streets, depending on sources. Young people – mostly students – and unions are protesting the new "First Job Contract" (the "CPE"), an employment scheme proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to absorb French youth unemployment, which is one of the highest in Europe.

The protests center on the fact that this CPE (Contrat Première Embauche), designed for people under 26 years of age, provides for a trial period of two years, at the end of which the youthful employee can be simply sacked. Opponents of the CPE state that it will lead to more "precariousness" in a job market fraught with globalization, delocalization and uncertainty. They are most assuredly not wrong, in Amerloque's view.

From a purely American perspective, of course, there is nothing particularly special about this "First Job Contract". What could be more natural for a young person to enter the job market with an "uncertain" contract, taking on a job with no "guarantees" as to length of employment ? That's the system, in the USA and in many other countries.

Amerloque confesses that he is a bit puzzled by those Americans resident here who, in dinner parties, in the media and on their blogs, say that the protesters are "wrong" and that the "First Job Contract" is a "good" thing. Perhaps they have not fully understood the country they are currently living in, or, if they feel they have, see the adoption of "American" solutions to French problems as a panacea to numerous economic problems here. French society has always been a delicately balanced one – which is why the quality of life has been so good for so many - and this new job contract is simply contributing to the destruction of what was once a finely-tuned equilibrium.

Unemployment here has been staggeringly high for many years – and there are already 37 types of employment contracts in France. The past autumn saw the implementation of the New Hiring Contract (Contrat Nouvelle Embauche, or CNE), which suspended the complex labor regulations usually in force for hirings and firings. Basically an employer can sack an employee if two years have not elapsed from the date of hiring. Guarantees are provided both to employer and employee, but they are far from being as favorable to employees as the usual job contracts of indeterminate length are. The CPE is yet another employment contract – the 38th – which adds age discrimination to the "normal" CNE measures. This is unacceptable to young people.

The theory behind these new contracts is that employers are reluctant to hire since sacking employees is so difficult here. Easier firings should lead to easier hirings, or so goes the theory. If these CNE and CPE contracts help reduce unemployment without damaging the balance in the job market - such as it is - well and good. However, it would appear – at least according to the unions and independent economic observers - that these CNE contracts are simply replacing traditional employment contracts. In the long run this will undoubtedly lead to more harm than good, since other issues in French society – notably the financing of social services, healthcare and retirement – are not being dealt with adequately to reflect the changes. Modifying only one element of a complex system without taking into account the effects on the other elements is a sure recipe for disaster. Ask any engineer.

The "opposition", that is, the Socialist and Communist Parties and the trades unions; stared almost unbelievably at the gift of the CPE that M de Villepin handed them on a silver platter, took some time to organize – and are now pouring oil on the political flames with gleeful abandon, issuing threats of a general strike and positioning themselves for the elections next year. With notable exceptions, the foreign media are again headlining "unrest" and "riots" in France. Et ca continue … .

For those who state that France has to "open itself up" and "modernize", they might be interested to know that Le Parisien has reported that one in seven French workers in France is employed by a foreign company, while in Germany and Great Britain the figure is 1 in 10 – and in America, it's 1 in 20 ! These numbers, though lost in the clamor over the CPE, should supply food for thought and give pause to those who say that France is "protectionist" or "economically backward".

In recent years French society has been thrown out of whack by many forces, not the least economic ones. It remains to be seen how the furor over the CPE plays out. One thing that the young people should remember, though: the unions stabbed the French students in the back during the events of mai 1968, and there is no reason to suppose that the tiger has changed his stripes.

This blog is now one year old - how time flies !


L'Amerloque

© Text Copyright 2006 by L'Amerloque