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Finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 (U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom) are found on Friday and Saturday in northern Canada (see below). As Barack Obama lashed out Wednesday at the undervaluation of the yuan, "matters relating to the Chinese currency (are) in all minds," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, suggesting that the subject would be treated by the G7.

Officially there is indeed no agenda, and contrary to tradition will be no statement issued after the meeting. "We want to rediscover the" spirit of Rambouillet "historic first G7 in 1975, and have a" chat by the fireside "freer," says one does in Paris.

There is also evidence that the G7 keeps all its usefulness, although the creation of the G20 seems to have finally stole the palm as an instance of global economic governance. The G7 countries are convinced that they have specific interests in common, as explained by a European central banker. "Our currencies are the only ones to be truly flexible, and also we can not forget that our economies have pushed capitalism to the brink!" Quipped the great European treasury.

Debt relief in Haiti

The G7 countries recognize the need to reorganize their respective banking systems, which – and alone! – Were behind the financial crisis of 2008.Mario Draghi, participate in debates with his two hats as governor of the Bank of Italy and Director of the Financial Stability Board, the international body created by the G20 to coordinate international regulation of all financial institutions, and not Only banks.

As for currencies, it is true that the G7 currencies are virtually alone, with few exceptions including the Swiss franc, which float freely, for better or for worse. The remarks made Wednesday by Barack Obama against the yuan, strangely overlapping language of Nicolas Sarkozy vis-à-vis the dollar. "The price of currencies and their accuracy is one of the challenges we face on the international level to ensure that the prices of our products are not artificially inflated and those of their equally artificially lowered," said U.S. President.

Even if the G7 should lead to no decision, according to a spokesman for the German Finance Ministry, announcements could be made regarding Haiti. The U.S. Treasury first raised the issue of debt relief for Haiti. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank participate in the Canadian meeting.

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The British bride is more beautiful. British Airways, which should finalize during 2010 his marriage with Iberia, said Friday it had halved its operating loss in the third quarter.

"We still expect to lose money records this year," warned Willie Walsh, its director general. Due to a disastrous start to the year, the company has doubled its losses in the first nine months of its fiscal year. But saving measures taken upon entry into the crisis begins to pay. They have reduced operating costs by 10.5%.

To achieve this, the company has taken most of its competitors' revenues low costs. Starting with one of the keys to their model: a homogeneous fleet of aircraft, which reduces maintenance costs.On its base from London Gatwick, British Airways is gradually increased to a single type of aircraft (Boeing 777) for its long-haul flights and two models (Airbus A 320 and A 319) for its medium-haul flights.

All departments of the company have also made efforts. British Airways has cut staffing in its ground staff. A voluntary separation scheme and the non-renewal of retirements have to spend the staff of the London Heathrow Airport from 7 000 to 6 000 employees.

The operation of the hub has been completely redesigned. The development of online registration and training for staff to become versatile allowed both increase productivity and improve the punctuality of aircraft easy payday loans .

Last summer, finally, employees of support functions had to take leave without pay."Everyone had made efforts, but the sailors, summarizes a part of British Airways. We decided to make some changes so authoritarian. "

"Ability to react quickly"

Since the fall, steps have been taken to reduce the rest stops and to enhance the productivity of crews. The rest in Los Angeles after a flight from London for example is increased from two to one night.

A voluntary retirement plan was established to 1 000 cabin crew. 3 000 sailors have agreed to move to part time. This change has saved the equivalent of 700 employees at the company. British Airways has also offered its pilots a pay cut 6 to 7% against shares. This will allow the company to achieve 300 million pounds of savings this year."These reforms demonstrate our ability to react quickly, welcomes a part of the company. Our competitors have thought that we overreact. "

These drastic measures have however led social movements. The crew of the company and to vote February 22 on organizing a strike to oppose these measures, calling the union Unite.

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"2009 has been loaded, 2010 will be equally dense" warned Friday Nicolas Sarkozy during the presentation of his wishes to the social partners. After congratulating unions and employer representatives for their "spirit of responsibility in the crisis, the head of state has listed the main projects of 2010 on social issues.

Unemployment in particular, "will be at the heart of our action in 2010," he announced, as well as the management of addiction, "fifth social risk. The job priority for the coming year, so even if the head of state welcomed the positive results already achieved in this area. "Unemployment, with the exception of Germany, grew everywhere more than France.I do not satisfy, but if it was the opposite, which would be responsible? I have an idea … "

"The major problem of our social protection

As previously announced, 2010 will also be an opportunity to address pension reform. "It's been 50 years that we gain a quarter of life expectancy per year. This progress requires us to make decisions, "he said. Moreover, "the French are not mistaken, three quarters are concerned about their retirement. In this area, the head of state warned it will take account of the arduous work. "It's a defect French confusing equality and uniformity," he explained, suggesting that retirement may not be recognized for all the same.

The Head of State had previously commended the social partners for their spirit of responsibility during the crisis.A speech already supported by Francois Fillon during his vows to the press, and a way to encourage social partners to continue this work in 2010 for the implementation of further reforms, and in particular, thorny pension . "I do not believe in our social history, we've already had a social dialogue as dense," he noted as well. "Rather than fan the flames, everyone had to heart to find solutions to the ills that affected the French," thereby achieving "a form of maturity of our democracy." "Our duty is to tell us" he meant well.

The number of overtime-exempt expenses remained virtually unchanged in the third quarter 2009 compared to the previous one, according to latest statistics from the ACOSS, the federation Urssaf. It now stands at 166.8 million hours, equivalent to 300 000 more than the second quarter. On a year because of the crisis requires, however, it drops by 9.2% but with very strong variations by sector of activity.

In industry, traditionally strong consumer of overtime, and the decline exceeds 20% a year, particularly in the metals and fabricated metal products (- 30.6%).

The downturn is intensifying in the construction, it also adept overtime, since the decline reached 9.1% year, four points lower than the second quarter.

The decline was however more moderate in services, – 5.5% a year, mainly because of reduced degradation in the interim (- 30.3%, after – 47% in the second quarter).

Small firms resist

The amount of overtime was ultimately declined less in very small (- 0.2% in one year) than in large (-12.1%) companies "because of the very small proportion of which remained 39 hours, have a structural use of overtime ", says ACOSS in its statement.

The annual decline is also evident in all departments. To the north and east of the hexagon that the decline is greater (less than – 13%) while the Ile-de-France and most departments of the South experiencing moderate declines in the number overtime (between 0 and – 13%).

Only a few departments, Corsica and the Mediterranean (Languedoc-Roussillon, Gard, Var …) actually experience a slight increase of about 10%.

In total, nearly 40% of companies today continue to seek exemptions from overtime, the lowest rate recorded since the entry into force of the measure contained in legislation Tepa in summer 2007. The more companies are consuming less than 10 employees have benefited from 29.5% to 673.1 million euros granted in the third quarter. The larger the company, the less the volume of aid is therefore the more than 2 000 employees affecting only 8.6% of the total.

The day on Tuesday a busy one on the social front, unions of Post and teaching have both called for a national day of mobilization Tuesday, November 24.

On Monday, several unions of Post and National Collective cons of privatization of the Post Office hold a press conference near the Elysee Palace before going there with the intention to meet with Nicolas Sarkozy and to deliver the leaves of 'annotating the "citizen referendum" held last month with the participation of 2.3 million people against privatization, according to figures from the collective.

On Tuesday, five unions at La Poste (CGT, Sud, CFDT, FOR and CFTC) to call a strike against the change of status and opening up capital of the company public, threatening to organize a national event "in the week of December 13, "if the government persisted in its goal to pass" the bill for this reform.