European Tribune - Comments - Strike day in France
But the current proponents of equality are never heard calling for the docking of higher wages - which are the most obvious inequality around. Pensions system are an element of salary, and one may have chosen to work at the SNCF or RATP knowing that the pension plan would be better, and thus maybe accepting a lower wage. Not many people would accept direct cuts on their monthly wage ; this is no different. And calling train drivers "privileged" in these days of rising inequalities is preposterous ; no train driver earns enough, even with a better retirement compounded, to be the the top centiles of highest French incomes.
So what are the proposed solutions? If inequality is supposedly a problem, it will return again and again and again. I then don't see a problem to get rid of it - which means that if they're going to increase contribution before pension, it will have to come with advantageous wage increases or any other quid pro quo that is 1) fair and 2) equal towards other workers.
If it takes strikes to address a wage increase in return of longer work contribution, would you think that is a desirable compromise?
Oh, and the "inequality" in pensions is financed by higher payments by the SNCF, not by the other workers ; like any wage differential. The privilege meme only gained enough traction because it became a regular cover of the French news magazines a few years ago. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
linca:
and the "inequality" in pensions is financed by higher payments by the SNCF, not by the other workers ; like any wage differential.
I understand that offset - hence the proposal to couple wage increases with contribution increases. Yet is this, or other compromises, even on the table by the government? If not, do you think such proposals would be forthcoming? In other words: how much is Fillon bluffing?
OTOH, some banners put up during the demonstration were asking for 37.5 years of contribution for all, even CGT banners, which hadn't happened during the 1995 and 2003 strikes. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I find it hard to believe that early retirements can be attacked as being "inefficient" in the same way the shorter workweek has been. Does anyone really believe that 60 year olds are as productive as 30 year olds in the pure capitalist sense?
That's the good old (1830s) liberal prerequisite to have a work market.
See Polanyi and the end of Speenhamland laws... Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
