Guillaume Gourgues is a political science lecturer at the Université Lyon 2.
On the eve of the financial crisis, Nicolas Sarkozy boasted that “when there is a strike, nobody even notices anymore.” But as France mounts its longest strike in decades, organized labor is once again showing its power — and its limits.
The gilets jaunes’ street demonstrations arose outside of trade-union structures. Yet their mobilization offers a historic opportunity to renew the labor movement.