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A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 31 december 2019
French unions behind strikes get public funds

By ELAINE GANLEY The loss in membership
Associated Press could mean a loss in funds
PARIS (AP) — As France's from union dues, but a new
strikes entered their 26th category of public fund-
day Monday, some in the ing came into force in 2015
country are questioning if with a law obliging work-
the labor unions that are ers to contribute 0.016% of
driving the crippling stop- their paychecks to unions.
pages have outsized pow- The small sum adds up and
er. is part of the snug relation-
The strikes have closed ship between unions and
French landmarks, hurt the state.
small businesses over the Unions in some cases also
Christmas season and benefit from direct subsi-
hobbled public transporta- dies from companies or cit-
tion. So packed was a Paris ies and towns, Andolfatto
bus recently that an elderly said. Companies and the
man with a cane fell out state also pay for employ-
when the doors opened ees "detached" from their
at a stop. Yet the unions' job, some full time, to con-
cozy but paradoxical re- centrate on union work,
lationship with officialdom including arranging strike
empowers them to block actions, he said, estimating
change. In this Dec. 9, 2019, file photo, railway workers gather during a meeting of the CGT union in Rennes, that at least 20,000 civil ser-
Unions represent less than western France. Associated Press vants are affected.
10% of the country's sala- A 2011 parliamentary re-
ried workers but receive "The mobilization is still communication branch, money over the years. port on the circuitous fi-
funds from 100% of them. there. tweeted that it had col- Large unions have a con- nances of labor unions was
The French state, local That's a real message for lected more than 1 million siderable patrimony, in- buried, too taboo to be
governments and employ- the government," CGT euros ($1.1 million) by Dec. cluding chateaux, some published.
ers help fill union coffers, leader Philippe Martinez, 26. of them requisitioned at Officially, France "considers
too, in part to buy peace leader of the hard-left CGT "I think ... people feel pro- the end of World War II, ... that unionism is positive
from what the government union, said after a Paris tected by the union orga- according to Dominique for the economy ... It con-
calls its "social partners." march that drew thousands nization," said Olivier Lefeb- Andolfatto, an expert on tributes to democracy, to
But peace is elusive as the on Saturday. vre, a maintenance worker unions at the University of development," Andolfatto
strikes continue and Presi- Public support is hard to at a Peugeot automobile Bourgogne Franche-Com- said. The unstated reason
dent Emmanuel Macron re- measure. plant and top official of the te. The chateaux are used is that officials and employ-
mains steadfast in vowing A Jan. 9 "day of action" pro- Workers' Force union at PSA in some cases as vacation ers consider they "are buy-
to to raise the retirement test may serve as a gauge. Peugeot. "It's stable. It's al- or training centers. ing social peace."
age from 62 to 64 and do The strikes already have ways there, just in case." But in recent years unions Franck Queru, 52, a train
away with special bene- broken the 1995 record of a He noted that deals nego- have been losing members driver and representative
fits for some categories of 22-day action over pension tiated by unions are "appli- — about a 30% decline for the hard-left CGT union
workers. reform before the govern- cable to everyone," union- since 1970, Andolfatto said. at Paris' Austerlitz train sta-
France's increasingly put- ment backed down. ized or not. France now has one of the tion, pays 1% of his monthly
upon population has yet to Clues might be found in on- First legalized in 1884, two lowest rates of unionized salary in union dues, and
rebel — an act that would line crowdfunding efforts decades after Napoleon III workers in the 36-nation he scoffed at talk of retire-
demolish union cries of to help needy strikers. The accorded workers the right Organization for Economic ment privileges or the re-
public support and weaken largest, started by the CGT to strike, France's unions Cooperation and Develop- portedly hidden riches of
their negotiating position. union's information and have built up muscle and ment, he said. the big unions.q
US, German, Israeli envoys weigh in on Russian WWII claims

and Stalin colluded to start to as a "stab in the back." dor Alexander Ben Zvi took
WWII. That is a fact. Poland Days earlier, Germany and a stand Monday to blame
was a victim of this hor- Russia had signed a pact the war's outbreak on the
rible conflict," Ambassador with a secret protocol August 1939 Nazi-Soviet
Georgette Mosbacher said to carve up Poland and pact. Polish historian Mari-
on Twitter in English and the Baltic states between usz Wolos told the Onet
Polish. The Russian Embas- themselves. Some six million portal that Putin is aiming at
sy countered with a tweet Poles lost their lives during "creating discord between
saying: "Dear Ambassador, the whole of WWII. Poland and the U.S. and
do you really think that you Recently, Putin has argued the international Jewish di-
know about history any that collusion between aspora." He said Putin is try-
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrives for an EU more than you do about Western powers and Adolf ing to erase Stalin's alliance
summit in Brussels, Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. diplomacy?" Hitler paved the way for with Hitler from history.
Associated Press World War II began on Sept. World War II. He also cast British historian Roger
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA against claims by Russian 1, 1939, when Nazi German Poland as an anti-Semitic Moorehouse tweeted to
Associated Press President Vladimir Putin troops invaded Poland. country that welcomed say that Putin's words "pro-
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — that Poland bears part of Two weeks later, the Soviet Hitler's plans to destroy Eu- voked a much better pop-
The U.S, German and Is- the blame for the outbreak Red Army also attacked rope's Jews. ular understanding of the
raeli ambassadors in War- of World War II. embattled Poland from the German Ambassador Rolf pact's true nefarious nature
saw weighed in Monday "Dear President Putin, Hitler east, in what Poles still refer Nikel and Israeli Ambassa- and significance." q