Gattaz, Valls and Hollande have tried all kinds of disinformation: they said the strikers take the population “hostage”, they used blackmail about “the image of France” with the arrival of the Euro Cup, or they called to end the strikes in solidarity with the victims of the floods… Nothing helped. The majority of the population continues to think that the responsibility for the situation lies with the government.
The government puts pressure
The government is seeking a way out, and puts more and more pressure. With one hand, it gives a few guarantees: it assures trucker that the law will not allow a decrease of their overtime pay; it goes back on the decrease of research budgets; it promises teachers a pay increase by 2020; it lures railway workers with the promise of a company agreement at least as good as the current framework (without reconsidering the main aspects of the attacks)… No doubt, this is in hope of silencing dissent and opening negotiations with the unions. To make sure union leaders stick to demanding the complete withdrawal of the Work Bill, we must remain mobilized.
Because Hollande and Valls have still not conceded on anything essential, and continue to boast that “the Bill will be not withdrawn”. And the millionaire Minister Macron wants to “broaden the scope of company collective bargaining to more issues”, suggesting to add wages. At the same time, Hollande hopes the toughening of the Bill in the Senate will make his version seem progressive! They think we can be fooled; we must make them swallow their arrogance.
Attacks are raining down everywhere…
This Bill represents everything that many workers have to endure and that the Work law would sanction and extend to everyone. It is only one component of an attack plan from employers and the government that we see being used in all sectors: in hospitals with the closures of units and workforce reduction, in the Post office with reorganizations that extend working hours, At the National Railways, with “base decree” against which the railway workers are fighting, in the auto industry with the new “competitiveness agreements”…
…but we can reverse the balance of power between workers and employers, now
In the context of the mobilization against the Work law, other local conflicts have erupted, particularly in the private sector. It is actually the same fight against the different aspects of the bosses’ offensive. Employees, workers, postmen, railway men, hospital employees, local and State public servants, unemployed – the last few weeks have helped the different sectors in struggle to meet, get in touch with each other. So there is no staying apart from each other, with different days of action for the different sectors. The bosses and the government count on such fragmentation to get the three-month old protest movement under control.
The refusal of the Work law should allow all the struggles to converge. The most determined minorities held firm: now we must join them to give a new impulse to the mobilization and extend it. Once such a generalization of the fights is achieved, victory will be close!
The next big event will be the national demonstration on 14 June.
Starting this week, let’s join the planned demonstrations on June 9 everywhere they happen. The working class has never, in recent years, been so close to be able to reverse the balance of power with the bosses.
