French Trade Unions Research Articles

The Influence of Government on Labour Relations in France

The striking feature of labour relations in France is the wide scope of governmental regulation and influence. Employers and unions rarely succeed in solving their labour problems by joint action, and the strikes of August, 1953, attest to the discontent of a large portion of the French labour force.Until the First World War, relations between labour and management were on an individual, rather than a collective, basis. Employers and workers had organized for collective action, but, except in the printing and coal mining industries, relations between the trade unions, strongly influenced by syndicalism, and the defensive associations of employers were chiefly violent in nature. Both unions and employers opposed government intervention in the labour market, and the government respected this sentiment.During the war it became necessary for the government to bring employers and unions together on arbitration committees and in less formal discussions in order to encourage uninterrupted production through the peaceful settlement of industrial disputes. Thus the first widespread contact between employers and unions took place under the auspices of the government. The syndicalist philosophy of the French trade unions was abandoned, partly as a result of this demonstration of the importance of governmental support, and partly as a result of the political success of the Communists in Russia.

French Trade Unions since Liberation, 1944-1951

French Trade Unions since Liberation, 1944-1951

French Trade Unions since Liberation 1944–1951

To the foreign observer, the pattern of political and economic events in postwar France has seemed so complex or confused as to defy understanding. In the midst of these events has been the French trade union movement, itself so changed and changing that available literature no longer gives a true picture of French unionism. This article undertakes to describe and analyze for the American reader the major developments in French unions since the liberation. Useful reading in conjunction with the present article is the analysis of French labor legislation by Adolf Sturmthal, Collective Bargaining in France, in this Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (January 1951), pp. 236-248. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)