Union membership may be low by European standards at 8 per cent, but the French passion for street protest gives organised labour far wider public support in the face of potentially unpopular reforms.

No mention of pesky facts like the obligation by law for companies to recognize unions in companies in various ways, their formal role in the co-management (jointly with employers' representatives) of social security institutions, not to mention the constitutionally recognised right to go on strike.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes