MONT 3886 Community Engagement

What is the RTT?

Réduction du Temps de Travail (working time reduction), what the French call time off in lieu or compensatory time

CDI - contrat à durée indéterminée

CDD - a set amount of time, a lot less security to the employee

Fonctionnaire - civil “servants paradise”

July group vs August group - Juilletiste et Aoutien

The reputation of French people being lazy comes from the history of strikes and wanting their time off because they feel its deserved, they’re productive but there is a lot less determination to be successful

The French get 30 paid days off, by law they have to give 20 paid days off in the EU. 

11 public holidays

average salary - 12 € / hour

sectors 

  1. primary (extraction of natural resources, agriculture), secondary (manufacturing and processing, factories), and tertiary (services)

  2. public 

    1. governmental services such (military, law enforcement, public infrastructure, public transit, public education, public health care, elected officials)

  3. private 

    1. part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, not owned by government

CGT/CFDT - biggest unions in France

Social systems in France - from WWII, 1945 → really worked in 1966

  • Health 

  • Worker’s compensation

  • Retirement 

  • Family

24% of all salaries + the employers’ contribution

What is a strike? – a collective movement involving a total cessation of work by strikers in order to achieve purely professional demands (improvements in working conditions, wages, workplace safety, etc)

Characteristics of a strike

  • the collective nature of the movement

  • total cessation of work

  • purely professional demands

Timeline:

1789: French Revolution (end of monarchy)

1791: the Chapelier Act – prohibits coalitions

1831-33: biggest strike in 19th century France for better working conditions and for a salary raise

1864: striking became legal

1884: trade unions or professional associations are authorised to form freely

1895: CGT (confederation generale du travail) was born

1919: birth of the CFTC – confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens

1941-45: Vichy government – striking is illegal

1947: FO – force ouvrière

1936: social explosion in may and june in diverse work forces – a lot of factories are on strikes which will let to the accord de matignon early june (2 weeks of paid vacation / 40 weekly hours of work)

1968: biggest social and sexual revolution in France – 4 weeks of paid vacation / 39 weekly hours of work


Questions to know:

  1. When did it become legal to go on strike?

1864

  1. When were people finally able to unionize?

  1. Name some successful strikes.

May 1968

yellow jacket movement


  1. Why is striking so “visible” in France?


  1. Do people usually disagree with people on strike disrupting their lives?