It’s our job to make them stop their attacks on workers!
The Work Act of Myriam El Khomri is the reform of the Labour Code that the Medef (bosses union) and the big stockholders have been demanding for a long time. Sarkozy and Chirac had never dared fulfill these demands, but Hollande and Valls are doing it!
Their reform is first about making dismissals cheaper and easier for the bosses. It goes back on working time regulations, with 12-hour days and 60-hour weeks, and allows work hours modulation over three years. It allows the bosses to pay overtime at only a 10% premium. It removes the work hours limitations for apprentices. It questions giving leave days to employees who just lost a loved one.
And many other attacks. The list is long.
The Government wants “company agreements” to better enable the bosses to dispense with labour regulations and impose setbacks on our standards of living, of work and salary. As to what they call the “social dialogue”, it is only a way for the bosses to blackmail and tame the unions and get their signature.
This Act adds to all the attacks against workers in all sectors, private and public: hospitals, railways, postal workers, teachers, automobile, chemistry, transport workers… Not to mention the threats hanging over unemployment benefits.
Enough!
We must make the bosses’ government withdraw its Work Act! The quicker the better.
At the end of last week, more than 700,000 people had already signed an online petition. On social networks, many users broadcast their outrage over this nasty project, dissecting all its parts. They counter the government’s lies. But that’s not all. They also call to fight.
“The fight against this law must be the beginning of a struggle against the whole system,” points out a Youtube user (#OnVautMieuxQueCa). He’s right, a thousand times right.
March 9, the beginning of our massive mobilisation
Wednesday, March 9 was proposed to be the date when people will take to the streets all over the country. It was taken on by youth and trade unions organizations. It also spread on social networks. This is our first opportunity, we must seize it. In a panic, Valls announced that the presentation of the draft law to the Council of Ministers would be postponed for 15 days, but also added that this would not change anything.
So let’s not hesitate, let’s keep this date of mobilisation.
Let’s meet in general assemblies, on strike. In the street, let’s join with young people and with our colleagues in other sectors. When the rank and file express and organise themselves, that is the best condition for launching a powerful wave and give ourselves the means to win.
We saw farmers, opponents to the airport project of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, taxi drivers, make their voices heard these days. Now is the turn of the working class to make itself heard, firmly, tremendously.
Mobilized all together, we are much more powerful than the handful of big bosses whom this government obeys. Let’s make March 9 the first demonstration of our strength, and the beginning of a nightmare for the government of the Medef.
The heads of the union confederations met last week… to decide to meet again on March 3. They cry after the “social dialogue”, they hesitate, they procrastinate. Given the scale of the issues, this is pathetic. This week, seeing the outrage and the preparation of the rank and file, will they follow the movement? In any case, with or without the union leaders, it is high time to enter the fight. A new episode may begin, when fear will change sides.
On March 9, all in the streets for the withdrawal of the Labour Act
