Paris: The strike or la grève

If you were in Paris on 19 October 2007, you probably noticed something different as you step out of your hotel or apartment. If you were setting out to do some sightseeing, you probably had to wait a long time for the metro (if it came at all) and fought the body to body crowd on the platform of the station. If you were planning to take the bus, the wait was just as long. If you were about to travel by plane and had to take the suburban RER to Charles de Gaulle airport, and you were brave enough to fight for space on the platform, let alone on the train, for yourself and your bags, you probably arrived at the airport much later than anticipated and a lot worse for wear. Funnily, taking a taxi did not pose a problem in term of traffic, as many Parisians I think had decided just to stay home.
That day, workers of public transportation have gone on strike. Striking or la grève is very much a French tradition as wine, good food and fashion. The big strike that lasted a while happened before I moved here in 1995. But since my arrival here I have had my share of grèves and have learned to take it in stride.

Living with the strike
The first time I experienced the strike, I was very angry and frustrated. I thought it was very egotistical of these transport workers to stop all transport to have what they want without thinking of others who still have to go to work and go about their business. However, having lived here, I finally understand and if have not yet learned to accept it fully, at least have learned to live with it without the anger and the frustration. Conflict is part of the French life. And the assumption in non friendship interpersonal relationship (between colleagues, between those in power and not in power, between supervisors and employees) tend to be that they will fuck you over if you don’t do something first (or sometimes, they will fuck you over if you don’t fuck them over first!). When potential disagreements arise (or mostly when unfavourable decisions or ideas are voiced by those in power), others take the conflict right away and call for a strike as a way to show power their way. The public transportation strike of the 18 oct was a show of force of unions and workers against those in power that have taken the decision to change the retirement age of these workers (Considered to be hard labourers, they have the right to retirement earlier than non hard labourers which the government is now attempting to take).
Bizarrely, people don’t negotiate first and then go on strike (which I think is what tends to happen in other countries such as Germany) if the negotiation fails. This is especially true in the relation between workers and government. However, having had to deal with the French administration, I now understand the need for this show of power on the street. French administration being so complicated, going through the regular channels would probably take forever and ineffective with the diffusion of responsibilities inherent in the system. In the hierarchical system, I guess there is always one person who is responsible, but before you get there, there are so many red tapes and hoops and holes that one must pass. Expressing anger and discontent seems to be an accepted part of French life even in everyday lives (Come to think of it, how many times have I observed spontaneous expression of Joie or happiness aside from in sport events when the French team wins? Not many actually).

Tackling the strike
Strikes would generally be announced in advance as warning has to be given to the government about this action being taken by workers. So, being good Parisians we take preparations to deal with this (and sometimes not so good preparations). Many would take time off which is more possible now since the working week has been reduced to 35 hours from 40 hours (entitling you to half a day off per week that you could accumulate). Many would take their car and just drive to work rather than take the metro. This is why we anticipate traffic jams everywhere on strike days though this did not happen really on the day of the 18th oct 2007 (but did on the 19th when the strike was partially extended without warning). Others will take bikes, rollers, mopeds etc. to transport themselves. And now since Paris has the Velib system (see my other blog entry: Paris on bicycle), this is an option that make striking days more bearable. However, the problem was that everyone thought of Velib that day. So, there were long lines of people waiting for a bike in bike stations that are woefully empty. A person who came along with a bike and returned it to the station was greeted with much joy as that meant the line was one person fewer. I ended up cycling across Paris for 45 minutes to get home which turned out to be quite pleasant anyway.
The wait for a bike happened again on a Friday. An interesting observation to illustrate the use of one of my sub stereotypes of Parisians. Whilst waiting, two guys were in front of me when someone with a bike arrived. The second guy, a very well dressed young man who had been clicking his heels impatiently and sighing loudly quickly grabbed the bike effectively cutting the line and went in front of the first guy. The first guy being young and I guess too polite did not say anything and sort of let the second guy get away with it. This is one of those moments where I wished I mastered the language enough to make some pointy but subtle comments about the guy’s behaviour. But instead, I just kept my mouth shut. I of course categorized the rude guy as the subgroup of egotistical Parisians who think they are good looking and so self-absorbed and full of self importance to the point of just being rude and deserving of a smack ! You see, frustrating little things like this brought about by the grève made me think that I am not quite home yet here…