Word: wages
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...modestly (from 14.3% in mid-1981 to 9.2% now) as inflation in other countries fell sharply; and the trade deficit went from $10.8 billion in 1981 to a record $14 billion last year. As the situation worsened, the government applied ever larger Band-Aids: two devaluations of the franc, wage and price controls and, finally, last week's third devaluation. Thus the main question was why Mauroy was asked to lead the fight against a possible fourth devaluation...
Mitterrand's decision to reappoint Mauroy involved a careful political calculation. Whatever his disadvantages, Mauroy is perhaps the one leader who can cajole the Socialist electorate into swallowing the bitter pill of belt tightening. He pushed through the unpopular wage and price freeze last year. For Mitterrand, there is also an advantage in having Mauroy absorb the unpopularity that the stringent new economic measures will generate. If Mauroy becomes too much of a drag on the party, the President can replace him before the next legislative elections, which are scheduled for 1986. Mitterrand thus has given Mauroy two years...
Anxious to stay in the government, the Communists have made numerous concessions to Mitterrand. Party Leader Georges Marchais and his comrades on the seven-member secretariat have grudgingly accepted policies of economic austerity that have, among other things, imposed wage restraints on their predominantly working-class constituency. After Mitterrand expressed firm support for NATO's decision to deploy new missiles in Western Europe, Marchais dutifully declared that "the Communist Party has wholly adopted the policy of the French government in which we participate...
...other ground personnel at the airline, a 25% raise spread over two years, starting with a 6% hike in April. The union rejected that package. Instead it wound up with a 32% raise by 1984, including an immediate pay hike of 21% made retroactive to January. The base wage of Eastern's mechanics will rise from $13.15 per hour to $17.40, making them among the highest paid in their industry...
Eastern's workers felt they had been sacrificing long enough. When the airline was nearly bankrupt in 1975, Borman persuaded his unions to take a one-year wage freeze. Over the past three years, they agreed to defer 3.5% of their pay because the airline was losing money. Now that mechanics have won a big pay hike, Eastern faces a new round of tough negotiations with its 6,300 flight attendants...