Trade unions claim that there have been no real negotiations on the plans.
As soon as Dominique Strauss-Kahn was appointed head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1997, he initiated projects to reform his Ministry, which is reputedly the most powerful and untransparent in the whole French bureaucracy. The Minister's reform project, which was preceded by a major information campaign aimed at public opinion, met with unanimous disapproval from the trade unions. This Ministry has one of the highest union membership rates in France. A preliminary report concerning the modernisation of the Ministry of Finance was submitted to the Minister in February 1998. This report resulted in an initial series of reforms, including bringing the Ministry of Industry under the umbrella of the Ministry of Finance.