Abstract
On August the 5th 1981, President Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order to return to work. It might seem utterly mad to a French audience because since May the 25th 1864, the Loi Ollivier has authorized the "right to be on strike". Indeed, the French legal system over protects employees from dismissal or firing. For instance, in 2005 the former La Samaritaine employees received roughly 5 years salary in compensation for an illegal dismissal. It emphasizes that each country has its own point of view concerning job demonstrations because of its own unique history. This was the case in the First Job Contract and the March 2006 riots that caused a lot of ink to flow in the French and international press. This profusion of articles gives us a broad range of view points about this situation. Through a selection of articles aiming at giving information to American, British and French audiences, we could figure out that both natives and foreigners can be critical of the French predicament.
