French trade unions. Power without responsibility

The trade unions have won a victory, but their strength is still declining

"IN REALITY, the problem in our country is not that we have too powerful unions, but that they are too fragmented and too small." After the capitulation by the French government to student and union-led protests against its labour reforms, such a statement might seem surprising. It was made recently by Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and head of the ruling centre-right UMP party--and he has a point. Despite their show of strength, France's trade unions are a declining force.

This is not how it feels. This week, Bernard Thibault coasted to an unopposed re-election as head of the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT), the country's biggest union, at its congress in Lille. He basked in the glory of the protests, which drew up to 3m people on to the streets and forced Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, to abandon his new flexible job contract for the young. Mr Thibault had been under pressure within the communist-backed union. It had failed in previous confrontations with the government, and Mr Thibault had lost the battle to stop it coming out against the European Union constitution. Now, flush with victory on the streets, he will enjoy renewed authority, and a third term, at the age of only 47.

To loud applause, Mr Thibault congratulated his members on a "beautiful page written by French trade unionism". He stressed the importance of unity: the five main unions had stood shoulder-to-shoulder against Mr de Villepin, avoiding splits that have weakened them in the past. And he called for a new campaign, this time against another job contract, the contrat nouvelle embauche, introduced last year by Mr de Villepin. A day of action is promised on May 1st.

Behind this muscular display, however, is a more nuanced reality. After 50 years of decline, just over 8% of workers in France belong to a trade union, compared with 12% in America, and nearly 30% in Britain (see chart). With some 700,000 members, the CGT is less than a third as big as IG Metall in Germany. It has lost two-thirds of its membership since the 1970s. Union clout is now concentrated in the public sector: one in four energy workers is a union member, but in the private sector union penetration is as low as 5%.

So how do French unions manage to keep so much power? One answer is public sympathy. Figures such as Mr Thibault have a revolutionary-chic cult status. Polls show strong support for the recent protests. Families with pushchairs turned out to show solidarity. Such support may explain French people's unusual patience over disruption caused by protests.

But the unions' influence also owes much to an entrenched statutory role. France's unemployment benefit is not run by the state but by an independent body, UNEDIC, which since 1958 has fixed the rate and duration of benefits in direct negotiation with the unions. Under a 1945 law, all companies with over 50 employees must have a comite d'entreprise (works council), which they have to consult on many big decisions, not only over working conditions. The companies have to finance these councils and pay their staff, and give them a budget of roughly 2% of overall pay for "cultural and social activities". At EDF, the state-controlled electricity giant, this is worth an annual euro400m ($500m). France's five unions also have a first-round monopoly over who may stand for election to works councils.

Unions thus have a lot of power, but without being representative. Some suggest that this mis-match causes conflictual labour relations. In effect, the unions are defending the interests not of the many, but of the few. Mr Sarkozy has made such an argument to support the idea of breaking the union monopoly on the first round of works-council elections, to encourage wider representation, but also to give a tax break for union dues to boost membership. "Let's help the union organisations to enlarge their base," he said, "and to become more responsible and more constructive." A better idea might be to rewrite the labour laws. But, after recent events, nothing looks less likely.

The trade unions have won a victory in the labour market dispute of Spring 2006 in France, but article says that their strength is still declining.