Best job in the world
The “favoured few” holding the country to ransom?
In October an advertisement was placed in the French national press that said, “best job in the world” – become a crane operator at the port of Marseilles for €4000 a month, work 18 hours a week, enjoy eight weeks holiday a year and savour a job for life".
No it wasn’t a job advertisement – I can see a long queue forming if that were the case – it was actually the local business federation protesting against the dockers’ strike that had blocked the port for more than two weeks and left the port with a huge backlog of vessels to deal with.
Behind the rather tongue-in-cheek advertisement, however, lay real frustration and the idea that something should be done about the “favoured few” holding the country to ransom.
It is the case that in October 54% of the French public said they wanted a full scale general strike in protest against President Sarkozy’s plans to reform the deficit ridden pension system. But even against this background, it is hard to see the justification for the Marseilles dockers acting as they did.
No doubt also in their minds was President Sarkozy’s attempts to reform working practices in the country’s ports to make them more competitive, and Marseilles being a particularly strong candidate in this respect.
So far as the docker action in Marseilles is concerned it was clearly not in the spirit of the three musketeers “all for one and one for all". It had a large degree of self-preservation associated with it.
Even this might be a bit kind, however. It might be more truthful to say that fighting to maintain the existing working conditions and practices of the Marseilles dockers is more like trying to make time stand still.
Just as the era of French royalty ended for sure, the ridiculous working arrangements in French ports have to be replaced with realistic modern arrangements. It is inevitable because in today’s world businesses simply cannot support employment conditions of this type.
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