France’s retired postal workers threaten EU vote
The traditional response by French workers to something they do not like is to take to the streets in protest, but the country’s retired postal staff have come up with a new way to make their anger felt.
Furious that the government has abolished long-standing perks – free home telephone lines and credit card subscriptions – 130,000 postal pensioners are threatening to vote “Non” in the May 29 referendum on the European Union constitution.
On January 1 their former state-owned employer, La Poste, ended the benefits worth EUR220 (GBP155) per pensioner per year, but which would have cost EUR700mil (GBP490mil) over pensioners’ lifetimes.
New EU accounting rules would have forced the postal service to set aside all the money this year, leaving the organisation unable to continue disguising the perks’ cost. Instead of taking to the barricades, the pensioners are capitalising on politicians’ fear that support is growing for a No vote.
Michele Le Goff, the president of the National Association of Pensioners of La Poste and France Telecom , said thousands had written to MPs and senators, threatening to vote No. The letters have been passed to the government – although so far to no avail. Last week France’s National Assembly and Senate approved the change to the constitution needed to allow the referendum.
But while politicians have given the treaty the thumbs-up, President Jacques Chirac is nervous about the prospect of a No vote and has opted for an early polling day.
Opinion polls suggest that 60 per cent of the electorate supports the constitution but ministers remember how backing for the Maastricht Treaty seeped away during a prolonged campaign, with the margin of victory just a few hundred thousand when the ballot was held.
Employees and unions at La Poste are already outraged at government plans to cut the number of post offices and staff prior to privatisation in 2009. Many public sector workers fear that the constitution will embody a dangerously “Anglo-Saxon” model, which they say threatens job protection and retirement benefits.
