I get to vote again
I've just voted in the 2008 élections prud'homales.
The what?
France has a unique system of industrial tribunals. Employees and employers vote to select their representatives in these tribunals. The elect are called "prud'hommes" - "valiant men".
The French industrial tribunals are different from other European systems because they are wholly elected and jointly-run courts. The 271 tribunals are composed of elected non-professional judges, half of whom are employers, and the other half paid employees.
They mainly decide pay claims, compensation, descrimination etc and apparantly tend to rule in favour of the employee. The elections are held every 5 years and the last time round turnout was poor, just over 30%. So there has been quite a bit of publicity this time.
I voted Force Ouvriere FO because they get the most done at the factory.
The French Minister for industrial relations said "Have you tried these croissants? They are magnifique". Bernard Thibault, the general secretary of the Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour, CGT) the largest of France's five main trade unions added "This year's oyster harvest has suffered from bad weather, but the No. 3 "Pepins" from Ile d'Oleron are delicieux"
posted by Stew @ 12:23 pm
4 people could be arsed to comment
4 Comments:
I'm guessing those aren't real comments there...although if they were, I wouldn't be surprised.
The voting has been happening at the school next to my apartment block too. And at the Métro yesterday we were besieged by people trying to win our votes...
That's funny, I thought prud'hommes meant surrender monkeys, or maybe lamb burners. I love a stereotype, me.
That's another mystery you've cleared up for me Stew. I"d seen 'prud'hommes' on the news but non of my dictionaries had the word and literal translation was rather useless!
I'd guessed from the TV images they were a committee of some sort, now , as much as I will ever understand France, what they are.
PS have you noticed that the word verification has started throwing up more 'words', for this post it's 'munges'. Anyone got a translation for that?
'munges' are the thin cellular walls that seperate the two hemispheres of your brain.
or
'munges' are the the latest cheese flavored snack food from Walkers, shaped like cochlea, and aimed primarily at midnight tokers.
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