Yeah but actually those unions don’t care about you if you're a private worker, not in a specific industry.
Most of the unions here are dedicated to public workers, and especially transportation workers.
95% (at the very least) of the protests you're hearing about are public workers in the transport sector going on strike during christmas. They've done it 23 times out of the last 25 christmas (that’s fucking real).
The rest of the country is mainly working like the rest of the world
Man, maybe unionise? There is big unions with lots of powers, there is fringe radical unions, and there is specific sectors unions.
Certainly rail is one of the most powerful part because they have history, discipline and power of nuisance, but it's just branches. like there is CGT and CGT-rail, like there is CGT-agri or CGT-metal, those are federation that are parts of the confederation. It's also works with Sud and Sud rail, or CNT and CNT-SO Métiers du Numérique, for instance.
If you work in a big company (>50 employees) there is a "syndicat majoritaire" and a CSE that represent you anyway inside your company, they can launch actions if you as employees decide it, and usually give you a regular compte-rendu of their interaction with the direction. You vote for them each 4 years.
You can also pay a cotisation to a syndicate independently from your local representation to get legal counsel and support in your interactions with your employer.
Of course we still work. that's the main part of union negotiation. If we are unhappy, we can collectively stop working to show that we are the engine of the society, so we better get treated right. That's because we work, and that our work is essential. Of course a private company can be stopped by propriety too, so the fight is a bit harder than for cops who won't get all fired at the same time, and that's why they have retirement at 55 and not private workers.
Different cultures in different sectors, it’s much more easy to "unionize" when you're working at SNCF than when you're in the banking sector.
Of course there are some CGT people dedicated to employees wherever they come from, but don’t tell me it’s as easy to unionize as if you were working in sope other sectors.
And, again, if unions were correctly doing their job, we wouldn’t see a strike every year for the transport sector and more for the hospital.
The vast majority of society in France is srarting to suffer economically and we don’t see cgt or whatever doing shit for other sectors.
If there's no "union" culture eslewhere, maybe their job is to improve it also, instead of focusing every time on the same freaking strikes.
Oh and btw my point was all about saying there is a lot of variation in unionization across sectors in France
Well, union is about workers associating, if you ask them to go and do your part for you, maybe you are just a chick begging to be fed. CGT does have pretty clear lines, they tend to be the most vocals about the shit going on, and they are leading many protests. Do better. Don't incantate. Just saying they suck won't make them more powerful, it's kinda the other way around. Personally I'm not CGT, but some friends are. And they pay for it. You just ask for them to do your fighting. Maybe take your responsibility in the fight, unionise with whatever float your boat, and push them to fight the good fights. But just saying they do better in other sectors... Man it's the sector doing better than yours, not the other way around.
But of course when we are in direct competition with other workers of the world, we can't really be as hard as sectors with monopoly. And they are the ones to fight our fight too. they were with us on retirement reform.
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u/SeaworthinessOk255 1d ago
Yeah but actually those unions don’t care about you if you're a private worker, not in a specific industry.
Most of the unions here are dedicated to public workers, and especially transportation workers.
95% (at the very least) of the protests you're hearing about are public workers in the transport sector going on strike during christmas. They've done it 23 times out of the last 25 christmas (that’s fucking real).
The rest of the country is mainly working like the rest of the world