Tuesday, March 14, 2006
The French Are Revolting!
At least 17 of France's 84 universities are on strike to protest a new work contract designed to encourage employers to hire the young, but allowing the new hires to be fired at any moment in the first two years. The situation has become ugly in Paris where police have used tear gas to disperse students in the Latin Quarter. Nine police have been injured. One was hit in the face with a paving stone.
This is serious business, but it reminds me of one of the idiosyncracies I observed when I lived in Paris. When you think of the French, what characteristics or stereotypes come to mind? Well, one of them should be "love to go on strike." Forget soccer, cooking, cheating on your wife - going on strike is the French national pastime.
There was a lot of labor action in Paris when I lived there. In fact, I kept a list. From March 8 until May 27 (less than three months), the following strikes occurred in and around Paris:
This is serious business, but it reminds me of one of the idiosyncracies I observed when I lived in Paris. When you think of the French, what characteristics or stereotypes come to mind? Well, one of them should be "love to go on strike." Forget soccer, cooking, cheating on your wife - going on strike is the French national pastime.
There was a lot of labor action in Paris when I lived there. In fact, I kept a list. From March 8 until May 27 (less than three months), the following strikes occurred in and around Paris:
- Guards at the Louvre (closed it for four days)
- Right after the guards returned, the cashiers went on strike. While they were out, the Louvre was open for free.
- Truckers (blocked major roadways)
- Bank tellers (on strike over plans to open banks on Saturdays - sacre bleu!)
- Air traffic controllers at Orly (on strike because ATCs at CDG were paid more)
- Air France pilots
- Ground and operations crews at Air France Europe, TAT and Air Liberte
- Workers who send coded messages to French embassies and consulates (on strike over plans to computerize some of their work)
- Hospital interns (on strike over government plans to cut their reimbursements)
One week at lunch the Metallurgists Union (who represent the French IBM workers) were passing out leaflets urging workers to rebel against a management that regularly breaks the law by demanding excessive overtime. By law, management could not ask for more than 9 1/2 hours per week of overtime (on a 38 1/2 hour work week). Mon dieu, what monstrous task masters those IBM managers must have been! The union also advocated a 32 hour work week including commute time.
How does anyone ever get anything done in France?
