Via Rich Gibson:
As of last Friday, the 15 or so unions that represent nearly all French teachers threatened to call a mass school worker strike on Feb 8. Teacher and other school worker wages fell drastically in the last 25 years, according to the union leadership. While the unions won some caps on class size and cuts in hours of work, the union leadership exchanged that for wage increases. Now the government is demanding the caps on class size be lifted, that thousand of teachers be laid off. The teacher union leadership has also called on other public workers to join the teacher walkouts on Feb 8 which conceivably could spread.
Here are some links showing the history of the struggle, which demonstrates the centripetal position of school workers, as workers, in today’s societies.
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=25&story_id=27164
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE3D61331F93AA25751C1A9609C8B63
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6191313.stm
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