My First Strike

I’M VERY EXCITED because today was my first day being in France during a national Strike. Oh yes, the French like their labor disputes and when they put their mind to it, they can Strike like nobody’s business. But what I really love about a good French strike is that sometimes other unions go on strike just to show support for the unions that are going on strike. Sound confusing? It’s not.

Let me see if I can explain: today’s strike was announced as a national SNCF strike (the largest rail workers union), but other unions decided to hit the picket line as well as a way of supporting the rail workers. So, for example, some electrical unions were also on strike today. So were some bus unions. So were some public sector unions. Oh, and many school across France had teachers who walked out today as well. At one local school, 4 of the 26 teachers went on strike so the students in those classes were told to go home while the others had to go to school. How great is that?

Many of those on strike in Nice met up for a march and a rally. Apparently stopping all the trains in the entire Cote d'Azur wasn’t enough, they wanted to march through the streets and tie up traffic as well. Fantastic! You can see from the photo above that turnout was pretty good.

This national strike was scheduled to last for 24 hours, but I just heard tonight that some elements within the union are now pushing for it to go on longer. Vive les citoyens!