The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.26           July 28, 1997 
 
 
French Gov't Backs Off Election Pledges  

BY DEREK JEFFERS AND RAFIK BENALI
PARIS - "Frankly, I'm disappointed," said Thierry, a 34- year-old temporary worker at a Renault auto parts plant near Paris, referring to the first month of the new Socialist Party (SP) led government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Thierry didn't want his full name used because of his temporary status. "I had too much confidence in the government. Jospin hasn't honored his promise to keep the Renault Vilvoorde plant open. He says he only promised to `reopen the Vilvoorde dossier' and that this was done. But the plant is being closed anyway."

Renault announced June 28 that it was maintaining the planned closing of its assembly factory, which employs 3,100 workers in Vilvoorde, Belgium, after receiving the report of an expert named a few weeks earlier due to pressure on the Jospin government. Tens of thousands of workers in Belgium and France have mobilized repeatedly against the plant closing since Renault announced its plans in February. Belgian unions negotiated an agreement with Renault on July 3 to limit the effects of the job losses. It provides for early retirement for workers over 50, maintaining 400 jobs in Vilvoorde and paying the remaining 1,600 workers 78 percent of their wages for two years. However, Vilvoorde workers meeting in a general assembly July 4 were critical of the plan.

Another of the new government's first moves was announced in Jospin's presentation of its program before the National Assembly June 19 - cutting off family benefits for households earning over 25,000 F per month (US$4,2371). The move has sparked a real debate. At GEC-Alsthom, Gerard Gasino called the 25,000F limit, "not too bad." But Michel Heimann disagreed. "Everyone pays for family benefits. I think they represent a right."

The SP-led government is also clearly moving to at least partial privatization of the state-owned telecommunications giant France Télécom, reneging on promises made during the electoral campaign to end attempts to sell off state-owned industries.

Meanwhile, the government has postponed action on Jospin's main election campaign promises - creating 700,000 jobs and reducing the workweek to 35 hours with no cut in pay. In a July 3 television interview, Jospin assured that the first of these new jobs would be created in the fall, while a government minister would only pledge that discussion on a law concerning a new workweek would begin before 1998. Unemployment grew by 32,400 in May, the largest increase since October 1993, according to the Jobs Ministry, leaving 12.5 percent of the labor force without work.

In his June 19 programmatic speech, Jospin did make certain concessions to the workers who voted him into office June 1. He confirmed that the government would regularize a large number of immigrants living in France to whom legal status had been previously denied. Government sources claimed this would affect between 10,000- 40,000 immigrants without documents, the sans papiers. A year-long fight has been waged by various collectives of sans papiers, including occupations of churches and demonstrations of tens of thousands. Several thousand people demonstrated again for immigrant rights in Paris July 5. On July 2 the government also announced it would submit legislation allowing citizens of one of the other 14 member countries of the European Union (EU) residing in France to vote in local elections. France is the last of the EU nations to apply this proviso of the Maastricht treaty.

Jospin also proclaimed a 10 billion franc increase in certain benefits for low-income families June 19, as well as a 4 percent increase in the national minimum wage. Eleven percent of the workforce earns minimum wage. Conservative president Jacques Chirac, upon his election as president in 1995, also increased the minimum wage by 4 percent.

Derek Jeffers is a member of the CGT at GEC-Alsthom in Saint Ouen. Rafik Benali is a member of the Young Socialists in Paris.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home