RTÉ Europe Correspondent Tony Connelly considers the changing public attitude towards the French unions amid a crippling transport strike.
At 7.45am outside Montparnasse railway station in Paris a small clutch of students demonstrate.
But a quick glance at their fliers reveals that the stereotype of the leftwing student supporting the nationwide strikes has been, at least in this instance, turned on its head.
'STOP LA GREVE!', intones the slogan, a surprising gesture against the strike by rail, bus, and metro workers.
'It’s the worst for France for a number of reasons,” says one of the students. 'It’s very bad for the economic situation, it’s very bad for students who can’t get to their university. It’s just a few people from the extreme left who are deciding the issue for everyone else.'
Those opinions would no doubt be challenged by thousands of other students who are supporting the rolling strikes against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to tackle the pensions system and later cut public sector jobs.
Thirteen out of 85 universities have been shut by students who are angry at plans to give more third level institutions more autonomy.
But the protest at Montparnasse this morning is significant.
It shows the discernible shift in public opinion from the last major confrontation between a French government and the unions which represent the country’s enormous public sector.
On that occasion, in 1995, the country was divided between people who supported the strikes outright and those who had sympathy for them.
Today, the latest opinion poll by the organisation IFROP shows that some 62% of people are unhappy with the strikes.
'Public opinion has learned something about the pensions system,' says Alain Bienaymé, Emeritus Professor of Economic Science at the University of Paris Dauphine. “This time around they’re being much more supportive of the government than in 1995.
'Sarkozy was elected on a platform of reforms and he’s taking a multi-pronged strategic approach to those reforms. So the population would be deceived if he was too shy in confronting the strikers. We’re talking about 500,000 people versus the 20 million who’ve already embraced some reforms.'
The strikes against changes to the pensions system kicked off on October 18 and received support from other unions.
Certain trades in France, such as train drivers, have enjoyed pension privileges since World War II. Some workers can retire at the age of 50.
After the liberation of France Les Cheminots, as railway workers were affectionately called, were something of a romanticised artisanale group. On two occasions in the 70s and 80s, ministers for transport were from the Communist Party.
Today, while strikers argue that their conditions aren’t as difficult as they were decades ago, they still insist their working hours are stressful and awkward.
But it appears that public opinion is not on their side. And Sarkozy’s government makes a strong economic argument. Paying out the pensions this year will cost an extra €5bn which the French state can ill afford.
However, like a French rugby ruck and maul, other unions are gathering behind the railway workers and forcing the issue forward.
Electricity and Gas workers are also on strike. Civil servants, teacher, telecoms and postal workers will have a stoppage on November 20 in protest at a proposal to cut 28,000 public sector jobs. Magistrates will go on strike on 29 November in protest at court building conditions.
But some experts see this as the revenge of the left, and the Socialist Party, following their stunning defeat in the May presidential elections.
However, rather than shy away from confrontation, President Sarkozy seems bent on a strategy of taking on all sectors at once.
'He sees a synergy between all these reforms,' says Professor Bienaymé. 'Students, universities, civil servants, judges, lawyers, medical workers, researchers, small businesses. He has launched initiatives in all these fields, setting up committees for consultation.
The problem for the trade unions is they don’t physically have enough staff to cope with all these fronts.
'Sarkozy is doing this to stimulate the culture of work, competition and flexibility.'
It’s an ambitious programme which is running into its first real test. And many ordinary French workers are deeply concerned about what the reforms will mean to their lives and pay packets. One worker, paraphrasing the president’s slogan 'Work More to Earn More” says ruefully, 'these reforms mean we’re working more to earn less.'
Sarkozy has vowed to stay the course. But so many of his predecessors have promised the same, only to come to grief in the face of enormous street protests.
Tony Connelly
