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「 再忙也不忘充電 」
-Dec 11th 2019 | 643 words-
在公眾號回復「12.08」獲取本周推文PDF版
本次選文：France：Brace for impact
香榭麗舍樹蔭下悠閒的靜謐、塞納河畔傳來葡萄酒的香氣，這是屬於法國的浪漫。但近日馬克龍卻面臨就任法國總統以來的最艱巨考驗。
12月5日，法國爆發了24年來最大規模的全國性罷工遊行。導火索是法國政府正在推動的退休制度改革，按積分計算退休金，退休越遲退休金越多。有超過70多個城市80萬人參與了遊行示威，涉及交通、能源、教育、醫療等部門。大規模罷工已陷入「拉鋸戰」。工會組織方面稱已經做好「戰鬥到聖誕節」的準備。France：Brace for impact
A new wave of strikes threatens to shut down France
→ brace for impact 提示人們險情即將（已經）發生，做好應急準備。在飛機上上，當乘客聽到廣播通知'brace for impact!' 或 'brace! brace!'，表示飛機迫不得已即將迫降，乘客當做出防備姿勢。
→ threaten to do sth: (of a situation or weather conditions) seem likely to produce an unpleasant or unwelcome result（形勢，天氣狀況）構成威脅
France was this week nervously awaiting the start of a rolling general strike on December 5th, which looked set to disrupt roads, railways, airports and schools. On day one the SNCF, the national railway company, said that only one in ten trains would run. Teachers, hospital workers and even lawyers promised to join in. In protest at President Emmanuel Macron’s upcoming pension reform, the strikes mark a return to the streets of France’s unions. Recently eclipsed as the face of protest by the gilets jaunes (yellow jackets), they are now keen to flex their own muscles and try to force Mr Macron to back down, just as the gilets jaunes managed last year.
→ rolling strike: a strike consisting of a coordinated series of consecutive limited strikes by small groups of workers滾動罷工（指每次有少量工人參加的協調的連續有限罷工）
→ general strike〔全國性的〕總罷工，大罷工
→ be/look set to do sth: likely to do sth; ready for sth or to do sth 有可能的；做好準備的
→ SNCF / Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer [法語] 法國國營鐵路公司
→ union: an organization formed by workers to protect their rights工會
→ flex your muscles: to show your ability to do something, especially your skill or power展示自己的才能〔尤指技藝或力量〕
→ back down: If you back down, you withdraw a claim, demand, or commitment that you made earlier, because other people are strongly opposed to it. 放棄[主張、要求、承諾等]; 打退堂鼓
The strike was called against Mr Macron’s pension plan, an election-manifesto pledge in 2017. This is designed not to curb overall spending on pensions, which amounts to 14% of GDP in France, compared with an OECD average of 8%. Nor does it raise the legal minimum retirement age of 62 years, on the low side for the OECD. It aims, rather, to merge France’s tangle of 42 different mandatory pension regimes into a single, points-based system. The idea is to make the rules more transparent, simpler and fairer.
→ tangle：a confused or complicated state 混亂的局面
→ points-based system：記點積分制體系
The reason for the collective fury is threefold. First, unlike his predecessors, Mr Macron has decided to use this reform to end pensions with special privileges, the so-called régimes spéciaux, which he argues 「belong to another era」. Indeed some such regimes, such as that covering the Paris Opera, date back to the 17th century under Louis XIV. Naturally, the beneficiaries of such schemes, such as train drivers who can retire at the age of 50 (rising thanks to earlier reforms, but only to 52 by 2024), will not give them up without a fight. Second, although France’s overall pension system is in deficit, some of these regimes are well managed and balance their books. Lawyers, for instance, fear that their virtue in maintaining a solvent, sustainable pension scheme will be punished under the merged system. They worry that they will be made to contribute more for the same rights that they enjoy today.
→ threefold: having three parts or elements有三部分的；三重的
→ give up without a fight: yield easily 輕易言敗，不戰而降
→ balance the accounts/books: to show that the amount of money a business has received is equal to the amount spent結平帳目，平衡帳目
→ virtue (in sth) : an attractive or useful quality 優點；長處；用處
→ solvent: (Accounting ) a solvent company has more assets than liabilities (= money that it owes) 有償付能力的；無債務的
→ punish: inflict pain on; hurt 傷害
Third, the government has spent so long consulting over its long-promised pension reform that it has ended up generating more anxiety about the outcome than goodwill about the discussions. Nobody knows quite what their future entitlements will be. The government, stuffed with brainy technocrats (Mr Macron himself being one of them), talks in incomprehensible jargon about 「systemic」 versus 「parametric」 reform. Mr Macron has ruled out raising the legal minimum retirement age. But many people suspect that, whatever he says now, everyone will have to retire later anyway. A poll this week showed that 57% of French people believe this. Distrust and confusion makes it easy for opponents to whip up anger. Supporters of the strikes include not just most of the big unions but such odd bedfellows as the Socialist Party and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
→ 本段第一句比較長，主要拎清楚兩個結構 so...that...(太~以至於~）和 generate more A than B 產生的A高於B
→ entitlement[C] a government system that provides financial support to a particular group of people （以特定群體為對象的）政府津貼制
→ be stuffed with sth: be filled with 塞滿
→ brainy: having or showing intelligence 有頭腦的，明智的，聰明的
→ technocrat: a member of a technically skilled elite技術專家
→ jargon: The specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group. 行話
→ systemic 全面的 Corruption in the police force is systemic.警察部門集體腐敗。
→ parametric 參數的
→ rule out: to stop considering something as a possibility 排除
→ whip up: stoke 煽起，鼓動
→ odd/strange bedfellows 奇怪的組合〔指兩個或兩個以上的人、觀點等出人意料地聯繫在一起〕
The government is expected to announce the new pension rules before the end of the year. What it decides will depend partly on how disruptive the strikes are, and on how far the French are willing to put up with them. In a nation founded on revolt, the French tend to be sympathetic to strikes when they begin, and become less so as the weeks drag on, or things turn violent. Today 64% say that they back the pension strikes. With this sort of protest, and in contrast to the gilets jaunes, the government at least has organisations to talk to. But the president is deeply unpopular, the unions are keen to teach him a lesson and the government is on perilous ground.
→ drag on: if an event or situation drags on, it continues for too long拖得太久；持續太久
→ perilous: dangerous 危險的
→ on dangerous/shaky/perilous ground : [of an idea or proposal] on an unstable or questionable foundation; founded on a risky premise. (觀點)站不住腳 // ground [U] an area of interest, knowledge or ideas （興趣、知識或思想的）範圍，領域
大罷工致巴黎交通癱瘓背後：難啃的法國養老金多軌制
5日，為抗議馬克龍的養老金改革計劃，80.6萬民眾（法國內政部數據，法國總工會數據為150萬）上街遊行，公交、能源、教育、醫療工作者甚至消防員都加入罷工隊伍，不少公共服務幾近癱瘓。
此次大罷工直接的導火索是馬克龍政府的養老金改革計劃。目前法國實行雙軌制養老金體系，它不僅擁有涵蓋全體就業者的基本養老金制度，還有針對農民、鐵路員工、電力行業、醫護人員、公職人員等多個行業的特殊養老金制度。
而特殊養老金制度為相關行業從業人員提供了繳費年限短、退休年齡低、待遇相對較高等一系列優惠措施。
根據經合組織(OECD)的數據，目前法國養老金支出佔GDP的14%左右，在歐盟各國中僅次於義大利的16%，遠高於德國的10%和經合組織國家8%的平均水平。而且法國的養老金最低領取年齡為62歲，是發達國家中最低的國家之一。
良好的養老福利帶來巨大的財政壓力。據法國退休指導委員會今年6月份公布的預測，如果不採取任何措施，到2025年，法國的養老金系統將面臨超過170億歐元的赤字。法國養老基金的虧空已經達到了政府無法承受的地步。
馬克龍直白地說：為了確保退休群體的基本生活，必須激勵人們更多地去工作。
今年9月，馬克龍政府公布《退休制度改革白皮書》，該白皮書主張將法國目前存在的42種不同的養老金體系整合為一個全民統一的積分制體系，即每繳納1歐元的社會分攤金便可積累1分，然後按照所積累的總分，計算養老金金額。
此次改革會觸及部分行業職工的利益。工會稱，馬克龍提出的單一養老金制度將影響公共和私營部門的數百萬人，迫使他們在超過官方規定的62歲退休年齡後繼續工作。
法國鐵路職工原本可以提前退休，但在「一刀切」的新政出臺後，鐵路職工如果不延長工作時間，就無法拿到全額養老金。
對於目前養老金參照標準為退休前最後六個月工資的巴黎地鐵司機們來說，積分制也意味著養老金將與工作年限內的所有工資掛鈎，特別是將相對較少的起薪也一併計算在內，這樣會導致養老金嚴重縮水。
法國工人力量總工會就指出，新積分制體系將導致巴黎大眾運輸公司員工的養老金減少30%。
所以，新養老金體系一經提出就立即遭到了目前多軌制體系獲益者的強烈反對。在反對者看來，強行統一的積分制無法反映各工種之間的差異。巴黎大眾運輸公司代表就指出，地鐵員工的工作條件艱苦，優惠的養老金制度是該職業的唯一優勢所在。
該主張也得到了鐵路工會的支持，在工會領袖菲特(Daniel Ferte)看來，警察、電力工人等職業意味著更多的危險和操勞，享有提前退休並不過分。
從社會理念而言，與職業生涯總工資直接掛鈎的積分制在許多人看來，也無法起到調節貧富差距、收入再分配的作用，更是與社會分攤金這一稅目名稱的初衷相左。
這不是法國政府頭一次試圖對養老金體系進行改革。此次罷工之所以選擇在12月5日舉行，也是因為在1995年的同一天，法國爆發了針對時任總理阿蘭·朱佩養老金改革案的罷工。
當時的罷工吸引了超過200萬法國人參加並持續數月之久，這也是1968年以來法國規模最大的罷工行動。最終，朱佩主導的改革在壓力下不得不嚴重縮水，包括法鐵和巴黎大眾運輸的養老金優惠體製得以保留。
這是馬克龍自「黃背心」運動以來面臨的最大挑戰，這一新的社會運動是對法國總統執政模式的質疑，反對的是「馬克龍式」的改革。誰動了誰的奶酪？
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