Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Mar 14, 2016 (III)

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Hélène Fouquet, In France, Hollande Is Cowed by the Union.

Quote:

(a) "Fewer than 8 percent of French employees belong to a union, compared with 25 percent in the UK, 18 percent in Germany, and less than 11 percent in the Us, data from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development  show. Yet French law requires any company with more than 49 employees to have union representatives, even if no employee is a member of a union.

"Desseilles Laces, a 126-year-old manufacturer in northern France whose customers include Victoria's Secret and Gucci, has become the most recent example of the power of the unions to unsettle even small enterprises [with fewer than 49 employees]. Co-owner Michel Berrier says the company may have to shut down after a court ruled in a suit brought by the unions it had to reinstate five workers laid off after sales slumped in 2913. Only two of the company's 74 employees are union members, Berrier says. Union representatives did not return calls for comment. The lacemaker, which had 2015 sales of €7 million ($7.7 million), says reinstating the workers will cost it about €1 million. Liquidation would lead to the loss of all jobs at Desseilles. The company and the government are appealing the ruling. Desseilles's plight was recently the subject of a story on national TV.

(b) Unions were part of Socialist President François Hollande's political power base, but now they've become opponents. After hus latest attempt at tlabor reform in Parliament prompted a union threat to demonstrate, Hollande has put that effort on hold.

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Labor activism undermines huge and tiny enterprises
(b) summary in table of contents: The outsize power of French labor unions
(c) BusinessWeek places the report behind paywall. However, it is enough to read the above.

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Poland Struggles to Afford Its Generosity
("In April the Polish government will start paying families 500 zloty ($127) a month for every child born after their first. The Polish handouts, meant to narrow the inequality gap [of wealth] and reverse an alarming drop in the birthrate, will lift an average family of five's income 25 percent. Norway pays a similar amount, but average incomes there are five times higher -- almost $5,000 a month")

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: The new government wants to heavily subsidize families
(b) BusinessWeek places the report behind paywall.  However there is no need to read the rest.