Can France strike “in rotation” like in the United Kingdom?

• For several months, the United Kingdom has been plunged into an almost constant state of strike.

  Not a day goes by without a professional branch going on strike.

• A method at the antipodes of France, where the unions prefer to invest the same day in a balance of power based more on the number more than on the duration.

• Trade unionists in the United Kingdom are increasingly reluctant to switch to the French method.

In the UK, a day without a strike has become rarer than a month without rain.

Since the end of the health crisis, the unions have opted for a particularly well-established rotation system.

Thus, the country is never under the influence of a general strike as is the case this Thursday in France, but no day passes without this or that sector being on strike.

This Thursday, it was the English nurses who walked off.

Last Wednesday, it was the paramedics.

The day before, the teachers in Scotland.

On January 6, the highway agents had eased off.

And so on.

This unprecedented movement for decades in the United Kingdom is driven by record inflation among the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Price increases reached 10.5% in December across the Channel, against 5.9% in France.

Consequence: the country is plunged into a social and economic crisis and the demands for salary increases are increasing.

French incompatibility

Is such a mobilization reproducible in France?

Guy Groux, a sociologist specializing in trade unionism, believes in it little.

"In the United Kingdom, the unions find it easier to coordinate because they are united around the

(TUC), the federal organization", explains the researcher.

The British maneuver is also the result of a constraint inherited from the Thatcher years: a strike can only be organized after a secret ballot vote by employees

must be announced in advance and must imperatively have an end date

Formal prohibition to leave the frame.

“This limit makes strikes easier to coordinate since we automatically know when each one stops.

It also pushes to unite: a strike is expensive and requires a long process.

All this explains a preference for many small strikes, ”continues the specialist.

Finally, this rotation system allows each sector to have a say.

"To make their specific demands heard, each trade likes to demonstrate alone, this allows them to have more impact", analyzes Marc Lenormand, lecturer in English studies.

To believe or not to believe in the strike

In France, the union culture is very different.

“Faced with an ultra-centralized power, the unions prefer the direct balance of power: a given number of people in the street at the same time”, deciphers Joël Sohier, lecturer and author of the book

.

The solution is found: an event, “much more visible in the media and with a strong visual impact.

However, notes the specialist, "in France, we no longer believe in the general strike".

The last one that succeeded in bringing together private and public dates back to May 1968. Let's face it, it's been a long time.

Even in 1995, only the public had really disengaged.

Across the Channel, trade unionists also tend to be much more moderate and seek consensus.

Two reasons for this: firstly, the profile of the members.

Being unionized is mandatory in some companies in the kingdom, which makes the thing much less politicized, says Guy Groux.

"This is not the case in France, where trade unionists are by choice, pay contributions ... We are on much stronger and more determined profiles," he says.

Second, certain lessons were learned from the failure of the 1984 miners' strike, in particular the lack of democracy in certain decision-making and a movement that was perhaps too radical to work in the long term, continues Marc Lenormand.

Strikes too soft?

While France is unlikely to change its method from the bang to the gentle but longer slowness of the British, the reverse could well happen.

In the private sector, the “rotation” method seems to be bearing fruit.

“Many companies have increased wages, says Marc Lenormand.

Those who won the raises left the movement and their success made other employees want to go on strike.

The public service, on the other hand, struggles to obtain increases in line with inflation.

To the point that the method, perhaps a little too

, of the British is questioned in the country. 

“Until now, the British unions preferred to act in dispersed order: by never bothering users too much, they kept the popularity of the strike, necessary in their long-term balance of power,” explains Marc Lenormand.

But on February 1, the situation could change: more than 100,000 civil servants will be on strike for wages, employment and working conditions, announced the union of public and commercial services (PCS).

The biggest public service strike day in years.

On the same day, the TUC also called for a strike in defense of trade union rights.

A common day for the whole country.

Unheard of since the 1980s.

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• UK

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• Pension reform 2023

• Inflation

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• Retreat

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