French Embassy Labor Dispute

I received the following item, which I post for all to read:

Senator demands justice for French Embassy employees

Frenchculturenow. May 16, 2008

In a letter dated May 15, 2008, French Senator Charles Balesi, representing French expatriates in the United States, has announced his intention to investigate the urgent problems facing local recruits of the French Embassy in the United States.

France employs thousands of French and non-French employees at its Embassy, consulates, Unitied Nations, tourism and economic offices in the United States. These employees have recently become vocal critics of the Embassy’s exploitative labour practices, neglect of employee welfare, enforced unpaid overtime, union-busting, harassment, punitive terminations, and double standards which favour French expatriates at the expense of non-French employees.

At least a dozen Embassy employees have been fired in the last year for speaking out in favor of employee rights, and the French unions CGT abd CFDT have been busy for the last four years defending employees who have been unfairly terminated by the Embassy after from 7 to 20 years years of faithful service and excellent work evaluations.

Senator Balesi mentions in his letter the case of Laurence Pierre, who was fired by the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles after nine years of service. Without going into the merits of her case (which is just the latest of dozens) Balesi notes that these capricious terminations would be illegal in France; they result in painful suffering for the terminated employee; and they damage France’s reputation.

Balesi will soon be proposing for legislative approval a charter of fundamental principles to govern the Embassy’s managment of local recruits.

The French Embassy in the United States has not responded to Balesi’s letter, but in past cases of employee grievance it has denied wrongdoing and claimed blanket diplomatic immunity from examination or legal action, as it flouts French and American state and federal labour protections and legislation. “The diplomats make up the workplace rules as they go along, knowing they can hire and fire anyone anytime for any reason, without rhyme, reason, or recourse,” said one American ex-employee of the Embassy, who had seven years of excellent work reports and a merit raise, before he was fired by a new French political appointee without explanation, severance pay or letters of recommendation.

Some employee advocates who have followed this matter for years go so far as to suggest that the Embassy has a blacklist and is eliminating anyone who has been vocal advocate for workplace improvements, despite France’s legal protection of “dialogue sociale.”

“It’s a pogrom which started under President Chirac and Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, and which has been emboldened by Sarkozy’s anti-labour policies,” said the ex-employee. “The irony is that Sarkozy campaigned on ‘more pay for more work,’ but the Foreign Ministry and Embassy is viciously silencing internal critics who demand modernised and efficient administrative management.”

Ref: charlesbalesi@comcast.net

http://www.frenchculturenow.com/index.php’

http://www.frenchculturenow.com/balesi-1.php

Piketty Interview

In Le Monde.

Central Banking

Lately there seems to be a certain amount of turmoil around the question of what central bankers have done and ought to be doing. Even before the subprime crisis there was no real consensus, even though there was a tendency to credit what has been called "the Great Moderation"--the lessening of the severity and frequency of recessions--to central bank vigilance and success not only in quelling inflation but in shaping inflationary expectations. But in recent days we have had Joseph Stiglitz launching a broadside on "inflation targeting," one of the tools used by some central banks to achieve these goals, and now another heavyweight economist, Alan Blinder, along with collaborators, raising questions about central bank communications strategies, following Michael Woodford, who asks similar questions. And this is to say nothing about the vociferous criticism of central bank actions in connection with the subprime crisis, with many critics alleging that lack of oversight encouraged risky behavior and that bailouts have only exacerbated moral hazard in financial markets.

What is the relevance of all this to French politics? It's no secret that Sarkozy has been unhappy with the European Central Bank. Central bankers, who like to think of themselves as virtuous vestal virgins, may have secretly delighted in the fact that their most outspoken critic seemed to go out of his way to publicize the character flaws that are supposed to afflict pandering political sinners: he spent lavishly both in public (cutting taxes on wealth as well as on overtime) and in private (yachts, jets, bling). The ECB, being a relatively young institution, has struggled mightily to establish its "credible commitment" to combating inflation, letting the chips (unemployment, slow growth) fall where they may. Like stern disciplinarians everywhere, they have insisted that the punishment is for the profligate child's own good. But the articles cited above are perhaps a sign that the "spare the rod and spoil the child" mentality of central bankers may be about to change. The new parenting style has yet to find its Dr. Spock. The critique of the puritanical martinet is still couched mainly in the language of mild internal dissent rather than outright apostasy (with the possible exception of Stiglitz). But internal dissent, coupled with more vociferous extramural denunciation and real changes in global markets (when food and oil are in short supply, is "inflation always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon"?), signal impending changes in central bank practice, on which political actors will want to capitalize.