What Can U.S. Unions Learn from French Crisis?

In the forthcoming article “After the social crisis: The transformation of employment relations at France Télécom,” Associate Professor Virginia Doellgast examines the role unions played in the aftermath of a wave of employee suicides at France Télécom from 2007-09. 

Doellgast and her co-authors highlight France Télécom’s labor unions’ creative approaches to studying and publicizing the negative effects of employment restructuring on workers’ psychosocial health. The unions were able to influence how the suicides were interpreted both within the firm and in the media, which led to December’s landmark decision by a Paris court to find the company – and several former top executives – guilty of “collective moral harassment.”  

The worker suicides at France Télécom came during a three-year restructuring plan that called for downsizing 22,000 workers, often based on ethically questionable methods. France Télécom’s labor unions launched several creative initiatives to study the negative impact of these practices on worker stress, and then communicate their findings to workers, managers, and the public. 

Two year later, when the press reported high rates of suicides at the company, the unions were ready with a well-organized message, backed by their survey findings: The company and its management were to blame. As a result, unions gained a formal role in monitoring management practices to make sure they did not threaten workers’ “psychosocial” health. 

According to Doellgast, the France Télécom case holds lessons for US unions struggling with similar problems of growing job insecurity and intensifying performance pressure.  She has recently worked with the Communications Workers of America on a survey measuring worker stress and burnout, sleep problems, use of medication, repetitive strain injuries and fears of outsourcing and downsizing.

“One lesson for U.S. unions is that change starts with mobilizing workers around stress at work: To collectively understand that these problems are widespread -- to build solidarity around the demand for good, healthy jobs,” Doellgast said. “But real power comes from communicating this demand to the public, through the media or even the courts. Companies are more likely to prioritize worker health when they fear losing customers – or in France, fines and jail time for their top executives.”

"France Télécom’s unions were able to get the courts to step in and make a landmark decision, which will likely have far-reaching consequences in France and beyond. Does the company just have a responsibility to its shareholders, or does it have a responsibility to its other stakeholders, which include its workers? This case shows the critical role of unions in making the case for this ‘stakeholder’ view of the firm: Companies are part of society, and managers should make sure they’re not killing their employees to make short term profits.”