As President Emmanuel Macron continues his restructuring of the French economy, the far Left are preparing to paralyze the nation.
Macron’s latest focus is on reforming the national railway system and its ludicrous, archaic work rules and compensation schemes. Railway workers are allowed to retire on gold-plated pension plans, some at the age of 52. If that weren’t bad enough, France’s railway network is massively overstaffed and distinctly wasteful.
Of course, the powerful railway unions don’t see it that way. They believe that morality exists in the bubble of their own being. They will hold commuters hostage in order to retain their luxurious pay packages. Evidencing as much, over the next three months, the railway unions will go on strike for two days out of every five in the working week.
You read that correctly. Two out of every five days.
The action will obviously cause chaos, but the unions don’t care. They’re gambling that the public will turn against Macron and force him to follow the tradition of his predecessors and ignominiously kneel in submission to their archaic throne.
Instead, Macron should redouble his determination. With his strong parliamentary majority, the president has the political mandate to implement his reforms. Moreover, his successes up until now will fortify the young president.
Macron also has the moral mandate. After all, alongside its continuing fiscal deficit, France’s economy continues to face major structural issues. These center on labor practices that deter investment, hiring, and entrepreneurial activity. And the issues matter because those who suffer the most as a result of them are those at the bottom of the economic ladder: the youngest and lowest-skilled.
Thus confident in what must be done, Macron should remember two names from history as he moves forward: Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher.
In the 1980s, Scargill, a top union leader, fought a long and bitter battle against Thatcher. Thatcher refused to budge, and in her eventual victory, laid the groundwork to build the modern, better Britain that exists today.
Macron should refuse to give an inch. Indeed, if the unions riot, he should send in the horses.
