And you thought the Canadian Auto Workers union was bad!

[GreenTeaFrapp]

http://www.ottawasun.com/money/2009/07/15/10143756.html

Laid-off auto-parts workers huddled Thursday around gas canisters tied to an electrical cable, threatening to blow up a factory in the latest example of extreme French resistance to cost-cutting in the economic downturn. Other French workers have kidnapped their bosses, blocked ports and barricaded factories to try to save jobs in France’s worst recession since the 1940s.
Some 200 workers at the New Fabris factory outside the southwest city of Chatellerault, are each demanding euro30,000 ($42,267) from Renault and PSA Peugeot-Citroen, accusing the carmakers of killing their livelihoods.
If they don’t get it by July 31, they say they will blow up the factory, about 190 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Paris. They are taking turns guarding 20 canisters of acetylene and butane, once used for gas-operated tractors and now spaced out on both sides of the plant and attached by a cable. Guy Eyermann of the CGT union said half of them are full, though that was impossible to verify.

Maybe the french should have had a unionized military during WW2. It seems like the only men with any balls in France are in a union. Too bad they don't have a brain to go with them.

[burn_this_city]

I bet the managers were shaking like a french soldier.

[Boblobla]

They are running tractors on acetylene?

[jammies]

The French love political theatre and confrontation. This is a pretty extreme example, but there is a much more militant tradition of labour activism there than anything seen over here since the Wobblies.

BTW, the whole "French cowardice" thing is complete bs. Why don't we all pick on the Czechs, or the Poles, or the Danes, or the Norwegians, or the Belgians, Dutch, Yugoslavs, Greeks, or any of the other nations the Nazis steamrolled? It was on the blood of the French that the Allies won WWI, American propaganda to the contrary. Losing WWII to a numerically superior enemy that had perfected a tactical doctrine 20 years in advance of everyone else's doesn't make French soldiers or the French in general cowards. Have a little more respect for a nation who has been Canada's ally and friend for over a hundred years.

And no, I'm not French or of French descent. It's just an ignorant and rude prejudice that has been imported from the USA and is long overdue for correction.

[burn_this_city]

Hahah thanks for the history lesson, but you forgot them jumping ship in Vietnam. Also you gotta wonder why they have so many caveats on their troops in Afghanistan.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by jammies

BTW, the whole "French cowardice" thing is complete bs. Why don't we all pick on the Czechs, or the Poles, or the Danes, or the Norwegians, or the Belgians, Dutch, Yugoslavs, Greeks, or any of the other nations the Nazis steamrolled? It was on the blood of the French that the Allies won WWI, American propaganda to the contrary. Losing WWII to a numerically superior enemy that had perfected a tactical doctrine 20 years in advance of everyone else's doesn't make French soldiers or the French in general cowards. Have a little more respect for a nation who has been Canada's ally and friend for over a hundred years.

And no, I'm not French or of French descent. It's just an ignorant and rude prejudice that has been imported from the USA and is long overdue for correction.

Don't forget that even after the French military surrendered, many French citizens fought bravely in the Resistance, often at great peril to both themselves and their families/communities (being captured usually resulted in execution). How many downed Allied airmen were smuggled out of Nazi-occupied France by members of the Resistance? How many Allied lives were saved on D-Day because the Resistance sabotaged German railways and other valuable targets?

Another fact that most people who criticize the French in WWII conveniently ignore is that Germany also steam-rolled the British and Commonwealth forces fighting in Europe in 1940 as well, forcing them to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk. For all of Churchill's passionate speeches about never surrendering, it was only geography (namely, the English Channel) that saved Britain from the same fate as France and the rest of Europe.

[missdpuck]

I kind of admire the French for speaking up. Sure we have our pockets of activism here in the US but with all our lip service to "free speech" we are a pack of wimps. Including myself.

[SebC]

ECON 101 should be a prerequisite for unionization. You aren't worth X dollars or Euros a year just because you think you are. And if you won't take less than more than you're worth, you won't have a job.

[Gozer]

Originally Posted by missdpuck

I kind of admire the French for speaking up. Sure we have our pockets of activism here in the US but with all our lip service to "free speech" we are a pack of wimps. Including myself.

Free speech = Kidnapping people and blowing up factories?

[jammies]

Originally Posted by missdpuck

I kind of admire the French for speaking up. Sure we have our pockets of activism here in the US but with all our lip service to "free speech" we are a pack of wimps. Including myself.

The French take their rights and privileges very seriously and are ready to march/riot/demonstrate at any time if they feel these are threatened. Yes, it leads to excesses: not just violence in cases like this, but also in unions that are impossible to deal with at times and which ###### economic progress. Yet there is also much to be said for people who don't roll over whenever an institution - be it the government or a large corporation - makes decisions that they dislike.

We could use a lot more of that spirit in Canada, even more than the USA. Passivity in the face of unwelcome change is all too common, as you say.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Hahah thanks for the history lesson, but you forgot them jumping ship in Vietnam. Also you gotta wonder why they have so many caveats on their troops in Afghanistan.

The Americans got evicted from Vietnam as well, and I don't think it made them cowards either - just realists. Vietnam is no different than dozens of other countries around the globe where colonial powers were forced to withdraw; once the consent of the subject populations turned into opposition, there was no way relatively tiny, or even relatively large, forces could succeed in enforcing colonial rule.

As far as Afghanistan goes, do you really think having restrictive rules on troop deployment has more to do with cowardice than a reluctance to accept the American lead and philosophy of engagement?

[CrusaderPi]

The French got a bad wrap from WW2. You wanna blame someone, blame the English for completely bailing on them. The Brits completely exposed the French flank when they bolted for the coast. After that it was game over man.

Editad: And I love picking on the French as much as anyone.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by jammies

The French love political theatre and confrontation. This is a pretty extreme example, but there is a much more militant tradition of labour activism there than anything seen over here since the Wobblies.

BTW, the whole "French cowardice" thing is complete bs. Why don't we all pick on the Czechs, or the Poles, or the Danes, or the Norwegians, or the Belgians, Dutch, Yugoslavs, Greeks, or any of the other nations the Nazis steamrolled? It was on the blood of the French that the Allies won WWI, American propaganda to the contrary. Losing WWII to a numerically superior enemy that had perfected a tactical doctrine 20 years in advance of everyone else's doesn't make French soldiers or the French in general cowards. Have a little more respect for a nation who has been Canada's ally and friend for over a hundred years.

And no, I'm not French or of French descent. It's just an ignorant and rude prejudice that has been imported from the USA and is long overdue for correction.

I somewhat agree, but you're also forgetting the Vichy government, the Maginot Line and the countless failures of French foreign policy since the Second World War.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by peter12

I somewhat agree, but you're also forgetting the Vichy government, the Maginot Line and the countless failures of French foreign policy since the Second World War.

To steal a line from our history class...

Q: Why does the new French Navy have glass bottom boats?

A: So they can see the old French Navy.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

To steal a line from our history class...

Q: Why does the new French Navy have glass bottom boats?

A: So they can see the old French Navy.

Hah, that was such a good class. I still talk about the British Navy's innovative cure for syphilis.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by peter12

Hah, that was such a good class. I still talk about the British Navy's innovative cure for syphilis.

You too, huh?

Oh the wonder of Mercury.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by peter12

I somewhat agree, but you're also forgetting the Vichy government, the Maginot Line and the countless failures of French foreign policy since the Second World War.

What do Vichy and foreign policy have to do with cowardice? I'm not talking about why there is dislike for the French, but specifically the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" meme.

The Maginot Line was built as a defensive fortification, true, but the Germans built the West Wall and the Siegfried Line as defensive works for the war, and nobody brings those up as indicators of pusillanimous German behaviour. As far as that goes, the Wehrmacht didn't attack the Maginot Line, so it wasn't a waste of money and effort, it worked exactly as it should - the war in the West was lost elsewhere.

[missdpuck]

Originally Posted by Gozer

Free speech = Kidnapping people and blowing up factories?

Hope you're being obtuse.

There are other comments on this thread besides the OP.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by jammies

The Maginot Line was built as a defensive fortification, true, but the Germans built the West Wall and the Siegfried Line as defensive works for the war, and nobody brings those up as indicators of pusillanimous German behaviour. As far as that goes, the Wehrmacht didn't attack the Maginot Line, so it wasn't a waste of money and effort, it worked exactly as it should - the war in the West was lost elsewhere.

People don't mock the Maginot line for being wussy... they mock it for not working. Which it didn't, since it was supposed to keep Germany out. We mock the French because they didn't realise their enemy could go around the wall, and the forest they thought was impassable turned out to be quite passable.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by SebC

People don't mock the Maginot line for being wussy... they mock it for not working. Which it didn't, since it was supposed to keep Germany out. We mock the French because they didn't realise their enemy could go around the wall, and the forest they thought was impassable turned out to be quite passable.

Yes, the Germans got through the forest, but their victory was in doubt until the English retreated for the coast. Besides, what should the French have done on the border? Leave it unfortified and hope they could stop the German army cold?