À Cause de la Grève

The last time I travelled through Europe, my European Heritage and Culture class had to seriously alter our travel plans because the trains weren’t running.  Why, you ask? À cause de la grève[i], bien sûr.  I remember trying and failing to send postcards on this trip, as well.  The post offices were closed…à cause de la grève. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. We took a bus, I didn’t send postcards, c’est la vie.

Now I am officially a temporary resident in France (that’s right, after waiting 2+ hours at the Office of Immigration, I now own a Titre de séjour…and an X-ray of my lungs!)  As a resident, one learns how exactly la grève works…or doesn’t, in France.  I learned that I can count on the fact that I can’t always count on public transportation during la grève.  I also learned that, though many French people take their droite de grève seriously, others simply take advantage of the lack of services (and function in general).  Les manifestations, I learned, resemble a parade minus the candy, plus police.  Note that, compared to the blocked airport in Marseille and the riots in Lyon, la grève I encountered in Strasbourg appeared relatively docile.  However, having very little experience with strikes (I’m talking one documentary about the meatpacking industry in Canada, folks) la grève in France certainly piqued my interest.  In an attempt to enlighten those of you, for whom striking is as foreign as foie gras, I’ll share a few of my observations:

Une manifestation I witnessed my first week in Strasbourg 

I arrived early to await Tram C because I knew the tram operators planned to strike that day.  Conveniently, all the tram stations announce, days in advance, when exactly they will cease to run.   Sure, strikes cause frustration, but they get points for organization.  Apparently, Sarkozy introduced a law stipulating that public transport must “maintain a minimum level of service.”*  The law requires transit workers to give 48 hours notice before a strike, making traveler notification easier.  Back at the station, a 40-something lady approached everyone waiting and warned us that the next tram would not arrive for 40 minutes.  This seemed strange to me because the monitor read 10 minutes.  In addition, nothing about this woman looked official, so I decided to wait.  Most others took this lady’s advice and left the station.  The lady, apparently concerned with my punctuality, continued to tell me that students planned to block the approaching tram and I really should consider an alternate route.  I responded by readying my camera, in preparation for rioting teens.  Well, not taking advice from strangers paid off because the tram arrived shortly.  The lady and I, the only ones left on the platform, boarded the tram.  En route, we passed a group of students walking down the road.  They walked so nonchalantly that I almost mistook them for German high schoolers on a field trip (not an uncommon encounter in Strasbourg).  Without banners, megaphones, or flyers, these students simply strolled down the street, talking to each other.  So this is la grève in France?  I guess retiring at 62 rather than 60 is a little too far off for these kids to get too riled up.  Or perhaps, these 30 students took advantage of not having to class and, once struck by guilt, made a last minute effort to do something for the cause.

La Manifestation at Place de la Republique

At school that day, six striking teachers standing outside of the school greeted me.  Happily, two of the teachers on strike were colleagues of mine, so I had no afternoon classes that day!  The low numbers of strikers came as a shock to me.  This was la grève about which I had heard so much?  After speaking briefly with these teachers, I found out that the main event, la manifestation, occurred later that day at Place de la République.  I decided to stop by and check it out, as I now had a free afternoon.  When I got to la manifestation, hundreds of people were gathered, just standing around.  A couple of vans were dispersed throughout the crowd playing various American classic rock hits.  Cops in their riot gear lined the streets around Place de la République.  As far as I could tell, they acted more as traffic directors than riot control. I did encounter two unexpected additions to my ever-evolving grève schema: food vendors and old men wearing masks and adult diapers!  After taking some pictures and hanging around for a while, I realized that the demonstrators weren’t going anywhere soon.  I left feeling somewhat disappointed at the lack of action I’d been seeing over the past couple days. 

Creative costumes at la manifestation

As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one disappointed.  I had a conversation with one of my striking colleagues a day after one of the strikes.  She was disenchanted with the way the strike was going.  Already, she had participated in the four days that teachers collectively went on strike.  Each day, she wasn’t teaching, she gave up her pay of 100 Euros.  It seems to me that she is taking the fall for the other teachers who stayed in school to teach the two students that showed up.  Instead of all of the teachers striking effectively once, she and a select few strike ineffectively several times.  I was especially impressed when she told me she didn’t even care that much about this specific cause.  Her concern was more with her droite de grève. From what I understood, she believes that if she and others are complacent about one issue, then they lose the right to challenge that and other issues later on. 

Police at the Tram station at Place de la Republique

I can’t say that all the French have views like this.  There were, after all, the majority of teachers inside teaching on the days of la grève.  Not to mention, the girl on the train to Vienna complaining about la grève ruining her plans to see Lady Gaga.  Nevertheless, this teacher’s statements struck me as admirable.  Throughout the strike, I had been thinking about how, had I the choice, I wouldn’t go on strike.  It wouldn’t be the worst thing to work until 62 or 67 and I certainly would not want to miss out on 100 Euros each day I decided to stand in the cold with a flag.  Is this shortsightedness (or even selfishness) an American mindset, I wonder?  Or is it just my personal tendency to make choices based on practicality and frugality?  Watching the babies and young children getting toted along on the marches and at la manifestation convinces me that there is something uniquely French about la grève.  Fruitless though it may seem to an American outsider, there is something romantically idealistic about a country that will fight so hard for their rights.

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[i] La Grève: The French word for strike.  I use it purposefully in this otherwise English composition because la grève is so, well, French. 

* See Wikipedia: “Service Minimum” (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_minimum)