On August the 5th 1981, President Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order to return to work. It might seem utterly mad to a French audience because since May the 25th 1864, the Loi Ollivier has authorized the "right to be on strike". Indeed, the French legal system over protects employees from dismissal or firing. For instance, in 2005 the former La Samaritaine employees received roughly 5 years salary in compensation for an illegal dismissal. It emphasizes that each country has its own point of view concerning job demonstrations because of its own unique history. This was the case in the First Job Contract and the March 2006 riots that caused a lot of ink to flow in the French and international press. This profusion of articles gives us a broad range of view points about this situation. Through a selection of articles aiming at giving information to American, British and French audiences, we could figure out that both natives and foreigners can be critical of the French predicament.
[...] Through the articles from the international press, we have extended our own opinion to a worldwide one. Consequently, we have kept in mind that the more sources we have, the more reliable our viewpoint is. Now if we had studied the question “Does the media think that the First Contract Job is the best for creating we would have been very surprised: according to an article published in Liberation.fr[12], the idea of the First Job Contract gradually seduced the United States. [...]
[...] The calculated hypocrisy among the French political elite has an effect on its population who are fed up with it passing itself off as gullible: the First Job Contract was taken as an opportunity for expressing themselves about the government's lack of credibility French people: a particular state of mind Numerous riots such as those of May 1968 and March 2006 proved that the politics of protest is a dominant characteristic of the French people. We also notice that they are afraid of making modifications in their legislation. [...]
[...] The only thing that has not changed is the American irony towards the French: according to Pete Stark French population's reluctance reinforces our opinion that the First Job Contract is a good reform.” The antagonism between the Americans and the French is not about to disappear. Bibliography Articles McSHANE, Denis, Politics of Protest”, Newsweek International Avail 2006 PEARLSTEIN, Steven, “French take to the streets to preserve their economic fantasy”, Washington post mars 2006 ROBITAILLE, Louis-Bernard, “France : la pensée magique”, La Presse, lundi 20 mars 2006. [...]
[...] Of course, the First Job Contract was not very clear in its drafting: few French people understood its deeper meaning. The dissatisfaction with a discriminatory law which created insecure jobs had quickly spread. Most of students who did not know what the First Job Contract really dealt with believed in this dissatisfaction. I have noticed that three types of people took advantage of the First Job Contract: first of all, this new law fulfilled some students' expectations of having more holidays. [...]
[...] Part 3 A worldwide tendency: to benefit from a given situation As I was a student during the March 2006 events, I was at the very heart of the situation. Even if the university in which I studied was not affected much by the demonstrations, I realized that the media's reports have to be taken cautiously The First Job Contract: an excuse for abuses When De Villepin's government proposed the New Job Contract (same working conditions as the First Job Contract), the French population had no reaction. So, why tackle the First Job Contract? [...]
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