Ah, the French

Bloomberg.com has an article by Helene Fouquet about French labor problems:

French labor unions called for a general strike on Jan. 29 to protest what they said were inadequate government measures to counter rising unemployment and falling purchasing power. Confederation Francaise du Travail, France’s biggest union, Confederation Generale du Travail, the second largest, and six other labor groups asked employees of the public and private sectors to take to the streets in what could be the biggest such action since President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected in May of 2007. It comes as France enters its first recession in sixteen years.
“This could be a big movement,” Former Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand told France 2 television yesterday. Bertrand is the new head of Sarkozy’s ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement.
The protests threaten to disrupt traffic on the Paris subway and commuter trains, on the national railway, at airports, and on Air France-KLM Group flights, unions said. Employees of companies including Electricite de France SA and French units of IBM and Hewlett-Packard are among those likely to participate in the strike.
Public schools and government offices are preparing for poor employee attendance in the strike, with unions for teachers, doctors and other civil servants asking for “urgent measures for employment and wages” and further “economic stimulus". Sarkozy unveiled a 26 billion-euro ($34.4 billion) economic-stimulus package in December.
About sixty-nine percent of the French people support the strike, according to a poll by CSA-Opinion for newspaper Le Parisien on 25 January. Forty-six percent support the strike, while twenty-three percent “sympathize” with the union call, Le Parisien said. Of those interviewed, twelve percent were opposed or hostile to the strike.
It’s the first time in Sarkozy’s presidency that a “social movement” has such public approval, Stephane Rozes, head of CSA-Opinion told Le Parisien. The French economy, Europe’s second largest, may contract 1.8 percent this year, the worst performance since World War Two, the European Union projected on 19 January. Companies are cutting jobs as the credit crunch derails purchases of homes, cars, and factory machinery. The EU sees France’s unemployment rate at 9.8 percent this year and 10.6 percent next year. The number of jobseekers in France has risen for seven months, recording the biggest jump on record in November.
Sarkozy traveled today to central France to roll out measures on employment to curb discontent. His chief of staff, Claude Gueant, told Le Parisien on 25 January that the government “was not worried, but vigilant” over the social claims. Sarkozy also faces today his second no-confidence motion in the lower house of Parliament by opposition Socialist lawmakers over his stimulus package and over rules that limit legislators’ debating time.