Strikes and work : a French story
I’m now inaugurating the first (and certainly not the last) article about “I love France”. Yes, France is full of…strangeness. So today, let’s start with a typically French tradition, strikes.
Everyone who actually took a subway or a train in Paris on a strike day know what it is. For the others, you just need to know that for the French people, strike has always been and still remains the best weapon to protect their advantages. So, it has been a week since the train drivers started a strike to defend their special retirement plan, that the Sarkozy government aims to suppress. But why do they have to go on strike? I’d say laziness : “Work more to earn more” was Sarkozy’s motto during the campaign, but French people would rather say “Work less to earn more”. You know, lots of people in France have a very lazy conception of what does the verb “to work” mean.
So, how does a strike look like ? Well, this is an example of a Paris metro platform on a strike day :
I’m sure you’re wondering what the consequences are. So, to be quick, there are the main features of a typicial French strike :
- Less than 50% of the trains are working
- Hours of waiting on the platforms
- On some lines, no trains at all, or 1 train per hour
- Tons on people, some compressed against the windows
- 200 km of traffic jams near Paris from 6am to 10am, and from 4pm to 7 pm
- Lots of people obliged to stay at home (so at the same time, they’re waisting their holidays)
- +70% accidents in Paris (cars, bikes etc)
- Walking under the rain to grab a bus or a train
Just to give you a little example, I took 3 and a half hour to go to Paris by car, while it only takes me 45 minutes usually…
And that’s not finished yet. Today, a new wave of strikes started, including :
- Teachers
- Hospital staff
- Postmen
- Firemen
- Airport staff
- Customs officers
- Public TV staff
- EDF and GDF staff
- France Telecom etc
Moreover, college students have been blocking universities because they reject a new law about their privatization. Nearly 70,000 people marched in the streets of Paris this afternoon (causing, of course, enormous traffic jams in the city).
These two weeks have been a mess to go to school, and it’s not ready to stop. Negociations are starting tomorrow afternoon, but as we are in France, no agreement is going to be found, and the strike is going to continue…maybe until Christmas? Why not, after all? Oh but I forgot, when you go on strike, you’re not paid, so maybe this point will make them stop complaining, because there are really lots of jobs that are far more difficult than driving a nearly automated train.
So, that is why, I love France !
PS : There’s no need to add that the only 100% working subway line is the only one that is 100% automated ^^ (aaaah, technology is wonderful! I really love line 14’s Meteor)
You’re a bit hard with them… Don’t make me say I approve this mess, but still, don’t forget that strikes are a political tool for syndicates, which enables them to allegedly “go to negociation with stronger arguments to throw in the bargain”, as the like to put it.
Honestly, Situation isn’t as bad as you depict it : I know it can be frustrating sometimes, but, hey, things are going better, right ?
PS : After all, syndicates are just normal people with political conceptions and beliefs about a world that is no longer the way the see it… Perhaps that’s why they are so angry : how would you react if you realised all of a sudden that what you hoped for will no longer come anymore, and that things aren’t as simple as you thought ? Well, teenage people normally shout some of their choicest swear words to their parents and slam their bedroom’s door… It’s more or less what syndicate are doing nowadays, don’t you think ? They’re having a right little tantrum because their illusions are starting to wear out…
So, I’m not supporting them, but I’m not condemning them, either : Strikes may be a bit annoying, I’ve never been a big fan of syndicalism and its methods, all right, but the point is, if nobody messes with Sarkozy and his minions’ littles schemes, who will ?
It’s going better yes, fortunately! But I believe that strike is a tradition in France…French people are NEVER satisfied (especially the RATP and SNCF guys), and that’s true, every year they want something more, and each time they’re unhappy, they go on strike, play the selfish card, paralyze the country. Come on, they’re working 35 hours a week, that’s less than a high school student schedule!
And the negociations wednesday…4 hours to come to this : “Nous reconduisons la grève au jeudi”. Okay…hopefully it’s nearly finished, well, no, they planned another strike on December if no agreement is found…
Actually I quite agree with the students, but I understand why train drivers should have a specific retirement plan : is their job difficult ? Mmmmh I don’t think so. All the drivers I saw were drinking coffee, reading newspapers. And the trains are almost automated now : automatic doors, brake, accel etc. It’s not as if they had to put coal in to made it work…There are lots of harder jobs (fireman, doctors etc), and those people could have demands too, but do they stop working because of that? No, because they got responsability. Going on strike is too selfish and easy. Like this, everyone could go on strike. Every jobs has its flaws and its advantages (when you work at the SNCF or the RATP…the advantages are not overmuch). That’s life !
This social events just confirms the image that France and French people have around the world : never satisfied, lazy and strike champions…
C’est la fête…