Impatient and waiting for social reforms, the voters of the Popular Front launched massive strikes across France. The president of the Council, Leon Blum, who gave many guarantees to the right before he was elected, was rather in a position of arbitrator than leader.
The powerful company owners, who predicted a big economic catastrophe and feared that the working classes could get to like idleness, were in panic. Scared by the magnitude of the social movement, they suddenly accepted many concessions.
The Chamber adopted, with only one vote against, the so-called law of June 20th, 1939, that established two weeks of paid holidays.
This movement of work limitation would continue to expand with the third week of paid vacations in 1956, the fourth in 1965 and then, the fifth week in 1982, but the movement is interrupted in 2005 with the contesting of the weekly duration of work, the elimination of bank holidays, and the postponing of retirement age.