Protests a symbol of French economic dilemma

Keith Miller Senior foreign correspondent • Profile

PARIS — Students and union members joined together on Tuesday in nationwide strikes that disrupted airline, train and bus services and sent thousands of demonstrators into cities across France.

They were protesting a labor law set to take effect next month that would allow companies to fire employees under 26 without reason within the first two years on the job. Opponents of the measure say the new law will destroy France’s longstanding workplace protections and cause havoc with the nation's culture and lifestyle.

NBC News’ Keith Miller reports from Paris on the underlying dilemma facing France: Will it change in order to compete as a big player in a unified Europe, or will it stick with its old ways and risk becoming a small fry in Europe and the increasingly globalized world economy? 

What are the goals of the protests in France? 
The goal is clearly to repeal this new legislation, which the protesters are absolutely opposed to.

The new law is very simple, but for the French it is very threatening because of their long-standing laws protecting people's jobs. It says that employers have the right to fire, without cause, any employee under the age of 26 for up to two years after being hired. Currently, the law is that after six months of employment you are then essentially employed for life unless the employee has committed some sort of crime or fraud against the company.

So basically the French have enjoyed lifetime employment for decades now — and the French government wants to stop it. The students have gone into revolt and the trade unions have backed them up, and that’s why we’ve got tens of thousands of people on the streets across France today.

It’s sort of a cliché, if you will, to say that the France will protest over anything, but just how significant are these protests we’re seeing?
This demonstration goes beyond the usual public displays of anger against the government. This has hit a very raw nerve in France because the right to employment, the right not to be fired — almost a right to lifetime employment — is part of the social contract here. It is part of the culture.

People here have grown up with this for generations, and now this generation — the ones now in university — feel that they are the ones being made to pay. So the demonstrators are very serious. They have been going on now for three weeks and with each demonstration, it appears that the numbers are growing.

As to whether they will be successful or not, the students certainly are adamant and determined. They say that they will cripple the government, with the help of the unions, unless this law is repealed.

How is this playing out on the political front?
We might see some sort of compromise within the next week or so because the political stakes are enormous.

In particular, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is staking much of his 2007 presidential bid on the success of this law being passed and implemented peacefully. [The French political system contains both a president and prime minister, with the president being the directly elected head of state and ultimate leader, and the prime minister, who is elected by members the ruling party in the parliament, running the country on a more day-to-day basis.]

Villepin was clearly hoping to have broad political support when he launched this, but the extent of the opposition and protests from the students and the unions was probably unexpected and has left Villepin politically vulnerable.

If he compromises, he is discredited. And if he carries on, and it leads to even greater social or economic repercussions, he’s to blame. Of course, he also has his enemies within the political establishment here who are already saying that maybe there is room for compromise, or maybe we can nudge a little here or there.

Most of this is political posturing, but clearly the next president of France will win the election because he’s won on this particular issue.

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