2008 Woodie Awards
Four Thousand Miles Across the Sea
Strikes sweep the nation
Meghan McCallum
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Features
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If there's one thing I've learned about the French, it's that they know what they want and they aren't afraid to fight for it. Over the past few weeks, I've come to realize that there's a very specific strategy for a group to get a message across: the strike. There have been a few strikes in France lately, and I'm talking big strikes that affect everyone, even the unsuspecting American exchange students.
Not including the recent strikes in France, I remember one strike actually affecting my life. It was a teachers' strike when I was in maybe sixth grade, and I got a couple weeks off school. That was in Canada though, and we all know they're crazy. Besides those two weeks when my parents made me "teach myself" for a few hours each day, I have never really noticed strikes and their effect on the general public.
So what kind of strike am I making such a fuss about, you ask? Well, first there was the SNCF strike, with which employees hoped to protect specific retirement options. SNCF is the French National Railway Company, so when there's an SNCF strike it means that none of the trains function on their regular schedules. The Nantes tram system still ran, but all of the trains going to other cities were blocked.
The strangest thing, I thought, was that SNCF announced their strike well in advance. As long as a month beforehand, my host family had warned me against buying train tickets for that specific day because they knew about the strike. I happened to forget these warnings and bought tickets to visit some friends in Poitiers, so I paid for my bad choice later when I had to reschedule and buy a bus ticket. Throughout the day, SNCF workers could be seen marching through the streets of Nantes, chanting and handing out flyers.
The next big strike I encountered started last week at the Université de Nantes. When I arrived on campus Wednesday morning, I saw a huge sign attached to the side of a building that said, "Student Strike. General Assembly, Amphitheater C, 10:00 Wednesday." My class that morning happened to be at 10:00 in Amphitheater C, so I was in luck. Instead of sitting down to a two-hour psychology lecture, I entered Amphitheater C to see tons of students, some smoking their cigarettes inside, gathering to discuss their strike.
Not including the recent strikes in France, I remember one strike actually affecting my life. It was a teachers' strike when I was in maybe sixth grade, and I got a couple weeks off school. That was in Canada though, and we all know they're crazy. Besides those two weeks when my parents made me "teach myself" for a few hours each day, I have never really noticed strikes and their effect on the general public.
So what kind of strike am I making such a fuss about, you ask? Well, first there was the SNCF strike, with which employees hoped to protect specific retirement options. SNCF is the French National Railway Company, so when there's an SNCF strike it means that none of the trains function on their regular schedules. The Nantes tram system still ran, but all of the trains going to other cities were blocked.
The strangest thing, I thought, was that SNCF announced their strike well in advance. As long as a month beforehand, my host family had warned me against buying train tickets for that specific day because they knew about the strike. I happened to forget these warnings and bought tickets to visit some friends in Poitiers, so I paid for my bad choice later when I had to reschedule and buy a bus ticket. Throughout the day, SNCF workers could be seen marching through the streets of Nantes, chanting and handing out flyers.
The next big strike I encountered started last week at the Université de Nantes. When I arrived on campus Wednesday morning, I saw a huge sign attached to the side of a building that said, "Student Strike. General Assembly, Amphitheater C, 10:00 Wednesday." My class that morning happened to be at 10:00 in Amphitheater C, so I was in luck. Instead of sitting down to a two-hour psychology lecture, I entered Amphitheater C to see tons of students, some smoking their cigarettes inside, gathering to discuss their strike.
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