Tag: La Poste

French postal workers kicked off three days of strikes in the public sector Tuesday, as unions mount a challenge to the cautious liberalisation policies of President Jacques Chirac’s centre-right government. Some 300,000 staff were urged to stop work on a day that the National Assembly began debate on a bill to open the state-owned La Poste to outside competition in accordance with European Union directives. At mid-morning management reported that only 13 percent of workers were on strike, though the figure was higher in Paris.

Demonstrating French tobacconists in the southwestern region of Gironde seized a mail sorting centre on Friday to protest about unfair competition from French postal operator La Poste. The tobacconists said that local post offices are encroaching on their business by selling additional products such as mobile phone cards and greeting cards, while tobacconists obtain a profit margin of just 3 per cent from selling postage stamps, along with an allegedly meager compensation for offering basic postal services when a nearby post office closes.

The French trade unions FO, CGT and SUD have decided to protest against the proposed incorporation into French law of European directives on the liberalisation of the postal services market by urging employees of the French post office, La Poste, to stop work for 24hrs when the legislation comes before the French parliament on January 18. The bill in question also gives La Poste the right to set up a credit institution.”