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by Ross RiederFRENCH MIRACLE A shorter workweek, more jobs and men doing the ironing. An official study finds that France’s 35-hour week has boosted the economy and proved a hit with both employees and their bosses. Madame Niki, a hairdresser in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, used to dread Friday evenings. “Everyone wanted to have their hair done before they left for the weekend,” she said. “Now I close down most Fridays. There is no business. They all come on Thursdays instead.” The reason for the change is simple, Madame Niki says. The 35-hour week allows a large part of the Parisian office and shop working population to take an extra day off. France’s experiment with a state-imposed, shorter working week, mocked by the workaholic and market-driven British and Americans three years ago, is beginning to alter the country’s rigid social patterns. Weekends now start on Thursdays or end on Tuesdays; many younger, working mothers choose to stay at home on Wednesdays, when French children are traditionally off school. Middle-range French executives, on a 1,600-hour work year, find that they have an average of two weeks’ extra holiday (on top of the six weeks they already had). Leisure and do-it-yourself sales are booming. There is even anecdotal evidence that French male, blue-collar workers are doing the midweek shopping and learning how the iron works. The law, pushed through by the former employment minister Martine Aubry, already applies to 6 million employees in France, just over half the workforce. Next year, small companies with up to 20 workers will need to allow shorter working hours for the first time. A number of categories, including senior business executives, doctors, lawyers, journalists and soldiers, are exempted. An official report published yesterday said that the mandatory 35-hour week, and its voluntary predecessor, had created 285,000 jobs in the past five years. By the time the law applies fully to smaller companies in 2003, it should have created 500,000 jobs, according to a report by Le Plan, the French state’s strategic planning body. For more details, email editor at rossr241@aol.com, this story excerpted from an article by John Lichfield in the UK Independent. FRED MEYER CHECKERS ADDED TO UNION Seeking better benefits, 260 workers at Fred Meyer grocery stores in Brookings, Gresham, Hillsboro and Newport, OR, chose a voice at work with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 through a card-check. Under a card-check, an employer agrees to recognize the union if a majority of workers sign union authorization cards.• LABOR PRESS PROJECT The website http://faculty.washington. edu/gregoryj/laborpress/ is new at the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. Coordinated by Professor James Gregory, the initial focus of this Labor Press Project website is the history of labor media of the Pacific Northwest. The site provides a variety of resources including research reports, photographs, cartoons and facsimile pages from several dozen periodicals such as the Seattle Union Record, The Seattle Socialist, The IWW Industrial Worker, The Timber Worker, The Washington Teamster, The Philippine-American Chronicle, The Aeromechanic, The Seattle American Postal Workers News, The Third Rail (firefighters), and many others. Students in History 450 (a UW course entitled “Class and Labor in American History”) wrote the 28 research reports at the heart of the project. Extensive bibliographic guides make it easy to further explore both the history of labor journalism in the US and the labor history of the Pacific Northwest. There is an archive of more than 100 online historical photographs of workers and labor events that we compiled from the Museum of History and Industry’s collection. Labor Press Project is the third in a series of web-based resources that the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies has created to explore labor history of the Pacific Northwest. It joins the Seattle General Strike Project, and the WTO History Project, all of which can be found at the center’s web site: http://depts.washington.edu/pcls/ For more information contact: James Gregory gregoryj@u.washington.edu). FIDDLE AND FIGHT A new book, Fiddle and Fight by Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA) member Russell V. (for Victor as in Debs) Brodine, with his late spouse, Virginia, is a memoir of a life in music. The book, published by International Publishers, centers on Russell’s life in music, from high school in Seattle, to his study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, through many years in the St Louis Symphony. The quality of musical performance cannot be separated from union activity to insure a stable orchestra, Russell truly tells. Order at intpubnyc.com. ISBN 0-7178-0728-0, $8.95 An aspect of involvement in the PNLHA that I have enjoyed so much is the individuals who are a part of it. Knowing Russell and Virginia, as well as other members of their family in the area, has been a privilege. This memoir is an interesting and entertaining portrait of the Russells’ work and their lives together. I hope many of you will search it out and read it. It’s a short read of about 180 pages which I believe you’ll enjoy. |
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