On Monday October 20, 1997, France Telecom shares were launched simultaneously on the stock markets of Paris and New York. Almost a quarter of France Telecom capital was put up for sale.
This process is an important step in the progressive privatisation of France Telecom and has been systematically opposed to by the work force over the last 10 years.
France Telecom, typical of many other historical telecom companies, is totally integrated within the public administration of the PTT; the vast majority of the personal fall into the public service category and therefore are treated as civil servants.
The fight against privatisation started when government plans became known first in 1987, than again in 1993 to now.
There are two fundamental reasons for opposing privatisation :
- protection of the work force status; civil servant status means guarantee
of employment, this gives a certain number of safeguards to all staff when
confronted with hierarchical pressure;
-protection of the public service sector; this concept is very important in
France. The public sector's role is perceived as guaranteeing equality in
terms of public services with equalisation in public service charges
regardless of income.
Opposition to privatisation plans took the form of strike action by the majority of the work force in 1987, and later, on October 12, 1993, (75% of strikers from all categories), on May 30, 1995 (65% of strikers) and again on other occasions, when the majority of the work force expressed their views through strike action. During the public service sector strikes throughout November and December 1995, France Telecom workers were active participants.
One result of these strikes was to make the government of the day shelved decisions to carry out privatisation. These government backdowns go some way to explain the series of presidential and parliamentary elections over the last few years in France. Towards the end of a presidential or a parliamentary term, no government dared risk a prolonged strike likely to spread from the telecommunications branch of the Post to other parts of the public sectors.
This situation changed after 1995, when the Right won both the presidential and parliamentary elections. In the Spring of 1996, the government set in motion the partial privatisation procedure which just now been completed with the sale of France Telecom shares.
In order to understand why the Socialist government was able to complete privatisation this time round, it is first necessary to examine the current trade union situation in France.
The French trade union movement is pluralistic and fragmented. There are numerous unions. The work force of most companies elect their union representatives from union lists (known as professional elections) similar to voting electoral forms for political elections.
France Telecom has 5 of the major unions :
1st is the Confederation General du Travail (CGT), which obtained 29% of
the vote in the last round of professional elections. The CGT is the largest
union confederation in France, with a rather radical line of defence. The
CGT also joined in the November-December 1995, strikes and maintains a hard
line position against privatisation.
2nd is the union, Solidaires Unitaires Democratiques (SUD), a federated
independent union, founded in 1989 after CFDT expelled some left-wing union
activists. SUD is very much in tune with the new forms of social movements
(i.e. the fight against unemployment, the European Amsterdam Rally of June
1997, supportive of those without residency papers, etc.). SUD obtained 27%
of the vote in the last round of professional elections. SUD was also
involved in the November-December strikes and is firmly against any form of
privatisation. SUD has applied to join PTTI, this demand has been frozen,
CFDT and FO, both are member of PTTI, are against their application for
membership.
3rd is the Confederation Francaise Des Travailleurs (CFDT), the second
French federation. The CFDT obtained 17% in the last round of elections.
Politically seen as a moderate trade union, it was (and remains) one of the
privileged partners of France Telecom management.
4th is Force Ouvriere (FO), the third French federation. They obtained 14%
of the vote at France Telecom. Its position lies somewhere between CFDT and
that of SUD and CGT.
5th is the Confederation Francaise des Travailleurs Chretiens (CFTC), it
got less than 5% of the election vote.
In June 1996, the government and the France Telecom management reached a "compromise" with one of the trade unions.
The union accepting "the deal" was FO. They negotiated an agreement which allowed for a partial privatisation of France Telecom. The law decreed a minimum stake of 51% state ownership, it permitted civil servants to keep their status, whereas new employees would lose it and acquire private sector status instead.
The reaction of France Telecom labour force was demobilisation. This led to a split between those satisfied by government guarantees (short and medium term) and those disillusioned by the global trend towards privatisation, (i.e. in 1987, due in part to fact that the vast majority of telecommunications companies in Europe and the world were privatised, while France Telecom in 1996, remained one of the few public companies), and by the loss of monopoly with the introduction of competition from other telecommunication companies in Europe. There was also a split between the unions provoked by FO's action ( i.e. before all unions were mobilised against privatisation) and added to the demobilisation factor of the work force. Thus in June 1996, only a third of the work force went on strike and even less were for a long term form of strike action. This background favoured the passage of the privatisation bill through parliament by the right wing government.
The next stage in the privatisation law saga was the effect of the unexpected and astonishing victory of the left parties in the parliamentary elections of June 1997. The socialist party made a pre-electoral promise to repeal the privatisation law. However, their promise had the life-span of a red rose. The rose died as soon as the Socialists were returned to power. They resumed the privatisation process in September 1997, and pushed the legislation through to completion by the sale of shares.
At no stage was the work force officially consulted. SUD undertook to organise a referendum for them. The results were as follows : half of the work force voted, with 80% voting against privatisation.
Evidently, this was not sufficient to prevent the resumption of privatisation (i.e. on September 30, only around 20% of the work force responded to the strike call made by SUD and CGT ).
We have reached a new stage.
The situation is not wholly negative. Maintenance of civil service status, combined with 51% of state capital, allows the work force to conserve some of its advantages. These will make useful bargaining positions when the management of France Telecom or any future government attempts to go for total privatisation. At the same time, we must protect and develop the public sector in France. The new law stipulates that the actual system of tariffs be maintained throughout France. This implies that a new strategy is called for to defend that particular system and to obtain guarantees so that all new services (i.e. Internet, mobile phones, etc.) can be accessible to all levels of the population, through a low price policy, and above all, to keep prices as low as possible for all those on small incomes. This new strategy means that both the work force and telephone consumers groups must join forces. We are trying to build this alliance today.
Christophe Aguiton
Solidaires Unitaires Democratiques (SUD)
Paris, October 20, 1997
Uploaded 28 October 1997
Last update: 4 November 1997
por Abel Perea Ballesteros, UGT de España6 September 1997
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