Summary

The Trump administration has ordered French companies with U.S. government contracts to comply with Trump’s executive order that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Companies received letters from the U.S. embassy in Paris with a compliance questionnaire to be completed within five days.

French Finance Minister Eric Lombard plans to address this with U.S. counterparts, stating “This practice reflects the values of the new U.S. government. They are not the same as ours.”

  • invertedspear@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Like, how the fuck can you enforce that?

    US Auditor: you have a DEI program?

    CEO: non

    US: what’s with all the woman, gays, and blacks?

    CEO: they are jee most qualeefied

    US: well…. Get more rich white men in here or we won’t be doing business.

    CEO: zat sounds like affirmative action.

    US: what?

    Please forgive me trying to phonetically type a French accent, but again, this is some seriously dumb shit.

    • Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It seems indeed, especially since they contacted companies with no presence in USA, and did not for other that have business there. Either random mediatic noise, either pure incompetence, either both.

      • xenomor@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        You think that things like ‘laws’ and ‘contracts’ mean anything here in the US anymore? How cute.

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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          3 days ago

          They have meaning in France. The US doesn’t have any say over that. If the US breaks those contracts then they can be sued in France and French judges can award them penalties.

          • entwine413@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            Yeah, awarding penalties doesn’t mean anything if you can’t enforce it.

            • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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              3 days ago

              The French actually enforce their laws. The US has assets in France that can be seized to cover fines if need be.

              • xenomor@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                I hope that’s true and I hope it happens. I’m concerned because I see examples like the administration successfully exerting pressure on other states to relax their law enforcement in cases like Romania’s prosecution of the Tate brothers.

    • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Not everything is a distraction and your country needs to stop dismissing everything as one

        • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          Not really directed at you specifically, it’s just that it seems like the top response to Trump doing anything is that it’s just a distraction. I can’t really put my finger on exactly what it is about it that bugs me, but I think it just comes across as dismissive

          Edit: I think it bothers me the most when it’s something in relation to a country other than the USA. Like fine, write off the stuff that only affects the US, but to hear things just shrugged off as “it’s only a distraction” from a citizen of the country where said things are really screwing us over is just irritating.

          It’s like if someone just threw a handful of shit at you and someone else says “oh yeah that’s just a distraction 🤷”

    • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      France does NOT fuck around when it comes to staunchly holding their own employment laws under internationally owned companies. If you want to fire someone, for example, you have to follow the French criteria, and it’s a complex and drawn out process that makes American MBAs melt like they’ve opened the Ark of the Covenant.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I hope you are right. This timeline usually shows the companies caving, keeping a bit of a difference from directive, selling it as a we won’t change to their people and actually giving ground to the bullies so they can claim they won as well on conservative media. The polarization of the population makes it so their media won’t overlap enough to cause real conflict, just enough to say the other “side” of the conflict is nuts ignore them.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Grow a fucking pair French Finance Minister Eric Lombard.

    “Little Hands can go fuck himself if he doesn’t like it.”

    When are these people going to fucking attack his narcissism?!