What the french are talking about- CPE
Its been 4 weeks since the last vacation. Of those three weeks, there has been about one full week where I've had normal classes. Maybe.
Yesterday morning I got up went to school and instead of having classes, we had a vote whether we would have classes or not. We voted no. 652 voted for to 243 who voted against. (I was shocked!!) We Protested.
When I got there the vice principal was running around looking stressed out, not because he wanted the students to go back to class, but because there wasn't enough papers for the people to vote on. He ran and got the ballot boxes and with the principle and other administration people they counted the votes. Blockus.
The french are on strike. Full out. The government isn't listening, so they continue. The CPE, has been THE subjet of conversation for just about a month. Its incredible. Last tuesday there was a national strike and I was down town shopping. We walked into the stores, and there was no electricty. Strikers have even started to block the highways.
Jaque Chirac, the President, spoke last night. The news totally got cut out, and just before he spoke, there was a grand, "da da da.. a message from the presdent" with the french flag in the back ground. It was pretty serious. He said that he would reduce the law so that you could only work under the CPE contract for a year, and that when and if you get fired, the employers have to provide a reason. Still the opposition is NOT happy and there were more stikes today, and another big one on tuesday.
Half the universities in France are currently in a state of "blockus" no one gets in or out. In Paris there has been students who have locked themselves in their university for a few days and nights.
And my opinion-
The CPE might not be so bad because the "idea" is that any young person who is taken under this contract is going to be undereducated. Its for little jobs where the employer might only need someone for a few months, to wash dishes, carry crates or what ever.
The idea is that really educated people wouldn't be hired under this contract, that they could get a stable job in a company that needed them. Because there is so much umemployment for young people if the rules make it easier for bosses to hire them, they might be more likely to hire them as well. Not only that but the bosses all over the nation are saying that after putting in training time, they wouldn't want to fire their employees and start all over again just because.
However, there are a lot of french people with a university education. Its free and public here, so a degree is just a right that students have available to them. As a result there are an enormous amount of people going into subjets that interest them, but are not always practical.
Because you can, people choose to go to uni, in hopes to get a well paid, high end type job. There is no need for them to go into manual labour etc. Its not going to cost them anymore to get an indepth acedemic education, however inpractical. So these people who graduate with degrees, end up not being able to find work. There is too many of them, and none of them have any work experience.
This law would force a lot of them to take little jobs, in order to get enough experience to be taken seriously in the work force, for a better contract. This becomes an education system problem.
I think the government needs to encourage more people in trades, where there is soo much work that they can't keep up currently, and try to decrease the number of people going into the same subjects in uni.
The CPE isn't really going to change the world, the way the oppostion has made it out to seem like, however it has become a fight between the government and the people. Whos going to give in first. When the president spoke and said that the law is staying, that was the peoples last hope. There is no higher power that people look to to change after the president. Yet there is another strike for tuesday. The fight goes on.
Its an interesting time to be in France. And to think my mom wanted me to come to Europe because its politically stable. I love you mom, don't worry, I'm safe.
I'm moving to the country this weekend. No protesters will go there. Just a bunch of flowers and cows.
Yesterday morning I got up went to school and instead of having classes, we had a vote whether we would have classes or not. We voted no. 652 voted for to 243 who voted against. (I was shocked!!) We Protested.
When I got there the vice principal was running around looking stressed out, not because he wanted the students to go back to class, but because there wasn't enough papers for the people to vote on. He ran and got the ballot boxes and with the principle and other administration people they counted the votes. Blockus.
The french are on strike. Full out. The government isn't listening, so they continue. The CPE, has been THE subjet of conversation for just about a month. Its incredible. Last tuesday there was a national strike and I was down town shopping. We walked into the stores, and there was no electricty. Strikers have even started to block the highways.
Jaque Chirac, the President, spoke last night. The news totally got cut out, and just before he spoke, there was a grand, "da da da.. a message from the presdent" with the french flag in the back ground. It was pretty serious. He said that he would reduce the law so that you could only work under the CPE contract for a year, and that when and if you get fired, the employers have to provide a reason. Still the opposition is NOT happy and there were more stikes today, and another big one on tuesday.
Half the universities in France are currently in a state of "blockus" no one gets in or out. In Paris there has been students who have locked themselves in their university for a few days and nights.
And my opinion-
The CPE might not be so bad because the "idea" is that any young person who is taken under this contract is going to be undereducated. Its for little jobs where the employer might only need someone for a few months, to wash dishes, carry crates or what ever.
The idea is that really educated people wouldn't be hired under this contract, that they could get a stable job in a company that needed them. Because there is so much umemployment for young people if the rules make it easier for bosses to hire them, they might be more likely to hire them as well. Not only that but the bosses all over the nation are saying that after putting in training time, they wouldn't want to fire their employees and start all over again just because.
However, there are a lot of french people with a university education. Its free and public here, so a degree is just a right that students have available to them. As a result there are an enormous amount of people going into subjets that interest them, but are not always practical.
Because you can, people choose to go to uni, in hopes to get a well paid, high end type job. There is no need for them to go into manual labour etc. Its not going to cost them anymore to get an indepth acedemic education, however inpractical. So these people who graduate with degrees, end up not being able to find work. There is too many of them, and none of them have any work experience.
This law would force a lot of them to take little jobs, in order to get enough experience to be taken seriously in the work force, for a better contract. This becomes an education system problem.
I think the government needs to encourage more people in trades, where there is soo much work that they can't keep up currently, and try to decrease the number of people going into the same subjects in uni.
The CPE isn't really going to change the world, the way the oppostion has made it out to seem like, however it has become a fight between the government and the people. Whos going to give in first. When the president spoke and said that the law is staying, that was the peoples last hope. There is no higher power that people look to to change after the president. Yet there is another strike for tuesday. The fight goes on.
Its an interesting time to be in France. And to think my mom wanted me to come to Europe because its politically stable. I love you mom, don't worry, I'm safe.
I'm moving to the country this weekend. No protesters will go there. Just a bunch of flowers and cows.
posted by Bonnie at 2:55 PM
1 Comments:
gotta watch out for those cows, bon, you never know what they might do!
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