by ANTHONY TORRES
A new strike has hit France’s ports. During the struggle against the pension reform last September to October, the government had informally agreed to acknowledge the harsh working conditions of the port workers and accepted that they could retire early, thus putting an end to the port strike that had lasted for several weeks. At the end of December, the government went back on its decision.
This exposes the cynical character of the assurances given by the port unions during the wave of strikes of October-November 2010 against the austerity policies of the Sarkozy government .
At that time the port unions had encouraged the workers to end their struggle. This greatly helped the government end the protest movement, by claiming that they had won an agreement on their harsh conditions. These assurances turned out to be worthless.
WSWS for more