Nutless in Paris
In the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, air traffic controllers, federal employees, went on strike. When 11,000 of them ignored his order to return to work, he fired them. Clearly, President Hollande, for all his colourful private life, does not have the balls to face up to his own ATC problem, and tackle it in the same way.
Categories: Politics
Quintin Jardine's blog 
Something needs to be done as it’s the same every year at this time . Leaves people angry & upset with their holiday company’s @ the delays it causes. Being French & having balls is a bit misleading.
Maybe you were trying to go back to Scotland? Referring to Tam’s comment, it’s the same in France every year ALL the time, not just at this time. You were affected by ATC perhaps but SNCF has been on strike for more than a week, independent artists and technicians have been on strike for 10 days now and threaten all the major festivals and cultural activities this summer, midwives are on strike, firemen are on strike, taxi drivers are demonstrating by blocking cities, the Job Shop is on strike because they have too much work (pour souls) and not enough resources, the list is endless and it happens all the time. We suffer too you know. François Hollande is stuck, unless he does a Maggie Thatcher and destroys the unions altogether and that doesn’t seem likely, he can’t do a thing. Civil servants can’t be fired unless it’s for gross negligence, it’s in the contract as is their right to go on strike on condition that they give 48 hours notice. Of course they tend to do it when it’s going to have the most impact; well, you would wouldn’t you? The real problem is that France has run out of money; no factories, no industry, no mass employment, no nothing apart from high-tech firms that employ only ten people. How do you run a country that doesn’t generate any income? If you have the answer to that one, you could maybe give François a call!
I wasn’t trying to go anywhere, Fergus. Two friends were. I don’t study French current affairs, but wasn’t it ever thus?
What you describe is very like the Winter of Discontent, an act of self-destruction by the unions, in that it spawned Maggie. Maybe the French situation will spawn Marine le Pen.
It has indeed always been thus, it’s the French way and it will end up biting them in ass. I sincerely hope you’re wrong but I fear that you may be right. It’s certainly looking that way.