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It’s been a rough start to the new year for the French job market. On January 9, Groupe PSA, Europe’s second largest automaker, announced plans to cut 2,200 jobs across the country. Shortly thereafter, Carrefour announced it would be slashing 2,400 posts while clothing retailer Pimkie aims to eliminate 200. The announcements are a reminder that President Emmanuel Macron just completed the most sweeping labor law reforms in a generation. After the union-backed protest movement fizzled out last fall, employers have begun to take advantage of the new rules: PSA secured more than half its job cuts through a measure that loosens legal restrictions on layoffs, and Pimkie aims to follow suit. On a smaller scale, newspaper Le Figaro aims to cut more than forty posts under the new buyout procedure. The cuts are especially striking at Paris-based Groupe PSA, which makes Peugeot and Citroën cars and just purchased Opel from General Motors last year for €2.2 billion. 2017 saw record sales for the company for the fourth straight year as well as historically high profit margins. As a disgruntled PSA metalworker in suburban Paris told Le Monde, “the better things are, the more they cut staff.”

Labor in Retreat Labor reform has been a key achievement of Macron’s first year, succeeding where a string of predecessors failed. The new president had the advantage of a super majority in the National Assembly but nevertheless chose to pursue the reforms by executive order, thereby curtailing parliamentary debate and the possibility of unwelcome amendments. These circumstances all but required any successful opposition to come from the streets. Only massive disruption would have forced the government to relent. France’s labor movement, however, is in disarray. Two of the three largest unions declined to back mass mobilizations, including the nation’s largest private sector union, the Democratic French Confederation of Labor (CFDT). Both decided their relationships with the Elysée weren’t worth jeopardizing so early in Macron’s term. That left the combative General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the smaller left-wing union Solidaires with the task of jump-starting and leading a movement themselves. Participation in strikes and nationwide protest marches alike were limited, never truly exceeding a devoted left-wing base. In the one sector that saw mildly disruptive strikes — trucking, which has proven critical to past social movements — unions brokered a side agreement with the government exempting workers from the brunt of the reforms. For organized labor, the events were a cruel reminder of its disconnect from French society. While unions wield hefty institutional might and negotiate contracts on behalf of nearly the entire workforce, they count just 11 percent of workers as members. That rate is about the same as in the United States. If twenty years ago French unions might have been able to mobilize significant numbers of non-members, they simply don’t have the same reach today. Meanwhile, the other natural opponents of labor reform failed to deliver. France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, promised mass protests. But the party overestimated its draw by calling for its own nationwide day of action rather than following the already badly overmatched labor movement’s protest calendar. Students, the magic ingredient of successful French social movements, didn’t turn out in significant numbers either.