Black unionist to French workers

The following letter was written on March 21, 2006.

The Million Worker March Movement is hereby expressing its solidarity to the French youth and workers who have organized and mobilized in their own name. You are courageously protesting in the streets against the policy of allowing employers the right to fire young workers without cause within the first two years of employment.

The “First Employment Contract” law is clearly an attack not only on French youth but the entire working class. In fact, many of the French youth protesting are workers already, while the others represent the future French working class.

There are similarities with how the argument is framed in France, that this law will aid companies to bring down unemployment, and the argument in the U.S. regarding not raising the minimum wage: “We’ll hire more of you if we can exploit you more.”

In the U.S., an employer must show cause before firing a union worker only. Other workers must be able to prove discrimination to keep from being fired.

If this new law is permitted to stand, French workers can expect the further erosion of hard-fought worker rights.

I was a student activist at San Francisco State College in 1968 and participated in one of the longest student strikes in American history to establish a Black Studies Department and a School of Ethnic Studies, which still exist today.

The current struggle of the youth of France reminds me of the student activism at the Sorbonne in 1968. It is wonderful to see that the youth of France have not forgotten the history of activism and struggle of French youth and workers.

An injury to one is an injury to all,

Clarence Thomas
Former Secretary-Treasurer, ILWU Local 10
National Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement