This was a long post, but long over-due...
As you may or may not know, France has a long history of strikes. Since my arrival in September, the transit system has gone on strike (several times), the utilities (electricity and gas) people went on strike, students went on strike, teachers always seem to be going on strike, the judges went on strike, lawyers went on strike, and now recently its the telecasters. No more 5 o'clock news for you!!! Careers that I would never think would ever go on strike (namely judges, lawyers and the news people) have been going on strike over recent reforms to the French system.
The strikes that made world news were the transportation strikes, first in October, then again in November. These strikes were prompted by President Sarkozy's social security reforms. It seems it isn't only Americans who are concerned over social security as they approach retirement. In an effort to stave off a lack of funds for the baby boomers, Sarkozy is enforcing a higher retirement age, first in the public sector, then later in the private sector as well. Those who work in the transit system benefitted from an agreement which allowed those who held labor intensive jobs to retire earlier. This agreement dates back to a time when trains were powerd by coal and required seriously labor intensive work. Today no such intensity exists yet the agreement still stands, and Sarkozy's attempts to change it prompted several weeks of strikes. For a better description of the reasons behind the strikes, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2007_strikes_in_France
The transportation strikes affected people in different ways. For those who live and work inside Paris the strikes made getting to work inconvenient but not impossible thanks to Paris' Velib system -- a "rent-a-bike" system that allows people to pick up a bike from one station and drop it off at another. The impact within the city also depended on which metro line people relied on. One is completely automatic, has no conductor and continued running without a problem. Many lines stopped running at all or had very few connections. The metropolitain trains were even worse, and those who relied on them had even greater difficulty getting to work (or school for that matter). In a city whose population is near 10 million (Paris-metropolitain) taking your car to work wasn't really the best option either. Traffic was terrible and people were lucky to find parking.
For those of us here who don't live at school, I have a 30 minute train ride, getting to school became an ordeal and was sometimes not worth it. My direct route stopped running, forcing me to take a train into the city to Saint Lazare and then take another train back out to Cergy, tripling my commute. So, for days when I barely had 3 hours of class, and the train schedule would force me to arrive an hour early and leave an hour after and it took 3 hours round trip, the effort hardly seemed to be worth the result. Sometimes classes were canceled, but not always, and students had to rely on those who were in class for notes.
The train stations were a mess, people crowded everywhere during typical peak hours, and an otherwise busy station like La Defense (right next to where I live) was at times deserted. Entrances to the train or metro were taped off, or if they were running, an employee was present to prevent overcrowding. Life was exciting.
The strikes that made world news were the transportation strikes, first in October, then again in November. These strikes were prompted by President Sarkozy's social security reforms. It seems it isn't only Americans who are concerned over social security as they approach retirement. In an effort to stave off a lack of funds for the baby boomers, Sarkozy is enforcing a higher retirement age, first in the public sector, then later in the private sector as well. Those who work in the transit system benefitted from an agreement which allowed those who held labor intensive jobs to retire earlier. This agreement dates back to a time when trains were powerd by coal and required seriously labor intensive work. Today no such intensity exists yet the agreement still stands, and Sarkozy's attempts to change it prompted several weeks of strikes. For a better description of the reasons behind the strikes, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2007_strikes_in_FranceThe transportation strikes affected people in different ways. For those who live and work inside Paris the strikes made getting to work inconvenient but not impossible thanks to Paris' Velib system -- a "rent-a-bike" system that allows people to pick up a bike from one station and drop it off at another. The impact within the city also depended on which metro line people relied on. One is completely automatic, has no conductor and continued running without a problem. Many lines stopped running at all or had very few connections. The metropolitain trains were even worse, and those who relied on them had even greater difficulty getting to work (or school for that matter). In a city whose population is near 10 million (Paris-metropolitain) taking your car to work wasn't really the best option either. Traffic was terrible and people were lucky to find parking.
For those of us here who don't live at school, I have a 30 minute train ride, getting to school became an ordeal and was sometimes not worth it. My direct route stopped running, forcing me to take a train into the city to Saint Lazare and then take another train back out to Cergy, tripling my commute. So, for days when I barely had 3 hours of class, and the train schedule would force me to arrive an hour early and leave an hour after and it took 3 hours round trip, the effort hardly seemed to be worth the result. Sometimes classes were canceled, but not always, and students had to rely on those who were in class for notes.
The train stations were a mess, people crowded everywhere during typical peak hours, and an otherwise busy station like La Defense (right next to where I live) was at times deserted. Entrances to the train or metro were taped off, or if they were running, an employee was present to prevent overcrowding. Life was exciting.As for the other groups who went on strike, utilities joined in on the transportation strike, students were protesting a law that was passed which would raise their tuition from something like 400 euros a year to 1500 euros per year in the universities. Judges went on strike to protest a reorganisation of their districts, and lawyers protested Sarkozy's decision to allow a mutual agreement divorce to be done by a notary rather than through an attorney. Most recently it's been the newscasters who went on strike, but i'm not entirely sure of the reasoning behind it all. Will keep you posted.
2 comments:
Too many strikes. I'm getting tired of strikes...and getting tired of the writer's strike here even though I don't really watch TV. Strikes are great ways to instigate change, but they are also often abused. Have no idea if that is the case where you are, but I bet having strikes all the time does get a little annoying.
Today it was the taxis that went on strike.
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