PARIS—At first glance, France’s trade unions have never been better. Their campaign against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age has drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets, and labor leaders are fixtures on the most popular TV channels. Almost half of the French think trade unions rather than any political party embody the real opposition to Macron, and the overwhelming majority think the damaging strikes against his pension reform are justified.
But under this patina of success, French unions are wheezing. Membership numbers are down sharply, and many labor leaders feel their organizations have failed to stem the neoliberal wave that has been eroding workers’ rights for decades—and has only accelerated under Macron. Since he took power in 2017, Macron—a former investment banker who campaigned on a centrist, pro-business platform—has loosened the rules for firing employees, capped compensations for illegal layoffs, and favored agreements between management and workers at the company-level rather than for entire sectors, which critics say undermines employees’ bargaining power.
